Turn R&D into a competitive advantage. Build the right products. Launch them faster. Scale innovation predictably. We help companies improve product and portfolio decisions, accelerate development, and build world-class R&D organization through leading AI and Agentic approaches
Examples of our work
Emirates Team New Zealand
To help Emirates Team New Zealand defend the America’s Cup, McKinsey built an AI “sailor” trained with deep reinforcement learning,...
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
A digital twin simulates thousands of race scenarios a day and a QuantumBlack-built AI “control room” turns complex race data...
Our Products
Launchpad AI
A collaborative, end-to-end tool that helps teams move from information to innovation through an Insight Engine that uncovers patterns and opportunities from public and proprietary sources, and a Concept Generator that transforms insights into detailed, high-resolution concepts and synthetic respondents to enable rapid consumer feedback. Launchpad shortens the upfront innovation and visualization process from weeks to days, improving product development cycle time by up to 60%.
Cleansheet
An enterprise-grade, AI-powered should-costing platform that delivers real-time cost and carbon transparency across products, services, and supply chains. It transforms should-costing from a periodic expert exercise into an always-on, enterprise cost intelligence layer powering sourcing, design-to-value, carbon optimization, and agentic decision systems.
How we help clients
Featured Insights
McKinsey Direct
The next horizon: Engineering simulation for an AI-powered world
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As AI and its uses advance, the scope of engineering simulation is changing, redesigning the way engineering is done and moving...
Article
Automotive product development: Accelerating to new horizons
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New market entrants have cut automotive time to market in half. Established players need to speed up, or they risk being left...
Video
Top trends disrupting how companies develop and commercialize products
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McKinsey partners discuss three trends they’re seeing around technology, packaging, and new mechanisms for bringing bold...
Article
‘Innovation Execution’—a new industrial paradigm emerges
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Disruptor OEMs are challenging convention at every turn, forcing established OEMs to adapt their operating models to compete...
Podcast
Transforming R&D with AI: Breaking barriers and boosting productivity
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AI holds the power to accelerate innovation in R&D, but realizing its potential will demand that organizations rethink how...
McKinsey Direct
On the brink of a revolution? Engineering simulation in the age of AI
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The adoption of advanced simulation tools is accelerating in the automotive sector, but some tasks risk getting stuck in the...
Featured Experts
Anna Herlt
Senior PartnerMunich
Advises companies as they seek to optimize the value of their research and development investments, particularly within the automotive...
Kimberly Borden
Senior PartnerChicago
Serves clients in the Aerospace & Defense and Automotive & Assembly Practices, focusing on strategy, operations, and transformational...
Dave Fedewa
PartnerAtlanta
Serves clients in consumer and retail and leads consumer durables and our growth by design work
Elia Berteletti
PartnerSeattle
Advises high tech, consumer electronics, and automotive and assembly clients on digital and agile R&D transformations; leads...
Mithun Kamat
PartnerDallas
Helps aerospace, defense, industrial, and technology companies with strategy, product, margin expansion, and technology-enabled...
Sebastian Küchler
PartnerMunich
Serves clients around the globe on R&D topics with a strong focus on transformation toward future technologies, efficiency improvement,...
Johan Bengtsson
PartnerStockholm
Helps companies in advanced industries manage the transformation toward a sustainable future through operations improvement in...
Wolfgang Günthner
PartnerBerlin
Leads McKinsey’s design-to-value labs and the center for cost engineering globally, serving clients in advanced industries, product...
Stephan Mohr
PartnerMunich
Advises companies across industries on design and sustainability transformations, design-to-value, resource cleansheet CO2 and...
Eric Hannon
PartnerFrankfurt
Leader in McKinsey’s advanced industries sustainability work, driving transformations for clients across industry sectors
Derrick Kiker
PartnerTokyo
Helps clients across sectors develop industry-leading product and service offerings to drive growth and improve margins