For most leadership teams, the hardest AI questions are not technical. Where does the value sit? Why aren’t pilots scaling? How do we get the top team aligned fast enough to act? Those questions shaped the inaugural MIT–McKinsey Rewired AI Masterclass in Asia, a three-day program held in Singapore during the week of October 12 for about 50 senior client leaders and roughly 35 McKinsey partners. For McKinsey Partner Sachin Chitturu, bringing the two institutions together in Asia marked “an exciting milestone,” offering “learning, inspiration, and hands-on exploration of AI’s potential.”
The gap is real. McKinsey research suggests that about 90 percent of organizations have launched AI transformations, yet roughly two-thirds are stuck in the experimentation or piloting phase, and only about a third of expected value is being captured.
Two institutions, one learning journey
The masterclass paired MIT’s research and teaching with McKinsey’s transformation experience. Its backbone is Rewired, the McKinsey playbook codified from more than 200 large-scale digital and AI transformations. Its coauthor Eric Lamarre, who bridges both institutions, was joined by MIT Sloan colleagues Barbara Wixom, Jonathan Ruane, Meg Regan, and Paul Cheek. Lamarre emphasized, “This is focused on value creation. This is not ‘let’s do AI for the fun of AI.’ This is ‘how are we going to change the economic trajectory of the business in the way that we use AI?’”
The design was deliberately hands-on. Day one focused on aligning on value: how leading companies compete with AI, what the technology’s limits are, and which domains offer the biggest opportunities. On day two, participants built an agentic workflow and reimagined an end-to-end business process. Day three brought everything together in a management agenda that each team pressure-tested with peers. As McKinsey Senior Partner Vishal Agarwal observed, “Conviction comes not from hearing about what AI can do, but from experiencing it firsthand.”
Sessions were also grounded in the region, covering Asian success stories, the economics of open-source models, and how to navigate the US and Chinese technology ecosystems.
What attendees took away
One client summed it up simply: “That was the most amazingly awesome and impactful executive session I’ve ever been part of!”
For McKinsey Partner Antonio Castellano, the biggest gain was clarity. “The demystification of the technology part has been very powerful,” he said, adding that it allowed him to “think of business opportunities together with data, technology, talent, all as one problem.”
The hands-on sessions were a particular highlight. “When you get hands-on, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a novice, moderate, or expert,” one client noted. “All of you get to play with the tools the way an actual AI engineer would.”
Others credited the partnership behind the program. “The collaboration between MIT and McKinsey, I think, is great,” said McKinsey Partner Raymond Chan. “Having MIT faculty as well as Eric, I think it’s the best of both worlds.”
Participants left focused on what comes next. As another client put it, “I am reinvigorated by the workshop and will put some of the learning into action. . . . We know our areas of challenge, our pain points, constraints. We have plenty of homework.”
Cheek of MIT Sloan said, “This shows them and lets them feel what becomes possible when they not only understand the AI, but they actually go build with it themselves.”
Beyond the classroom
That sense of homework is the point. “Most programs give you the frameworks and send you home inspired. This class made you do the work,” said one client executive. Teams left with an execution-ready agenda built around two or three priority domains. The real test comes the Monday after: whether teams mobilize, funding follows value, and AI shows up in how work gets done.
If the energy in the room was any guide, Asia’s executives are ready to move from AI ambition to measurable impact.