Preparing the next generation of confident communicators in an AI-driven economy

As AI reshapes the way we work, human skills—such as clear, confident communication—matter more than ever. Yet high-quality communication coaching remains out of reach for many.

“JA Boost reflects our belief that artificial intelligence should expand human potential, but not replace it,” says Asheesh Advani, CEO of JA Worldwide. “By embedding responsible AI into our learning experiences, we can give every student access to personalized, high-quality coaching that was once limited to a privileged few. This is about democratizing excellence and ensuring that talent, not geography or circumstance, determines opportunity.”

JA Worldwide partnered with McKinsey through the firm’s AI for Social Good program, applying QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey’s advanced data and AI expertise to mission-driven, pro bono work.

The collaboration resulted in JA Pitch Master, a gen-AI-powered communication coach that helps young people refine pitch presentations through tailored, actionable feedback. JA Pitch Master is the first JA Boost agent, part of JA Worldwide’s broader initiative to harness AI in support of its mission to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.

Pitch Master blends structured practice, personalized AI feedback, and curated resources to deliver scalable, culturally responsive skill development.

The vision was to create an inclusive experience that could feel as intuitive and supportive as a human coach while reaching learners in every corner of the world. Not only does JA Pitch Master provide students with structured spaces to practice and personalized feedback to guide improvement, but it also offers curated learning resources tailored to diverse learning needs and cultural contexts—ensuring that high-quality skill development can be shared, scaled, and sustained for learners worldwide.

The solution is built on responsible AI principles, with strong guardrails for fairness, transparency, and safety—critical requirements in educational settings. JA Pitch Master uses multiple specialized AI agents to moderate tone, provide actionable feedback, detect hallucinations, and mitigate potential bias.

“JA Pitch Master will help bring high-performance communication coaching once reserved for boardrooms into the hands of every student, including those in underserved communities globally,” says Ankit Bisht, a partner and leader of AI for Social Good at McKinsey. “By leveraging multimodal gen AI, it evaluates content, delivery, and audience engagement—all within responsible AI guardrails that ensure feedback is constructive, unbiased, and empowering for each individual.”

The experience was shaped through a user-centric, design-thinking approach that kept students at the heart of the development journey. The team conducted more than 35 interviews with students, alumni, educators, and mentors to understand where traditional communication training fell short. Two design workshops in the Middle East brought together more than 50 alumni and students, who collaborated directly on early concepts and user journeys.

User testing across four countries informed iterative refinements, resulting in an easy-to-use minimal viable product built in three months.

Later, usability testing sessions with over 50 students in Bahrain, Canada, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates—supported by an in-person testing workshop—allowed the team to observe how students interacted with the solution. These insights informed iterative refinements to the scoring logic, user flows, and feedback approach, helping ensure that JA Pitch Master would not only be technically sophisticated but also intuitive, engaging, and culturally adaptable.

In just three months, the team translated these insights into a working minimal viable product ready for real-world use. The underlying QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, architecture provides a scalable foundation grounded in state-of-the-art technology.

“Working with JA students from Canada to Bahrain, the Philippines to the United Arab Emirates, one truth stood out: Ambition was never in short supply,” says Mahdi AlBasri, an associate partner at McKinsey. “JA Pitch Master was built to honor that ambition—using AI to extend mentorship and give every student unlimited space to practice, improve, and be truly ready.”

JA Pitch Master analyzes and scores pitches across 15 dimensions (to be scaled to 36) using advanced AI models. Early user testing has shown strong results, with satisfaction scores exceeding four out of five across usability, appearance, loyalty, and trustworthiness. Students described the experience as “user-friendly and easy for all to understand,” noting that its scoring system made it intuitive to see where improvement was needed. One student added, “This solution is game changing and takes pitch learning and practice to a whole new level.”

Pilots are now being run in Bahrain, Canada, India, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. The solution will subsequently be piloted for McKinsey’s Forward program students. At the same time, the product team is continuing to enhance JA Pitch Master by developing new gamification features and personalization pathways to deepen student engagement and support long-term skill development.

Looking ahead, McKinsey and JA Worldwide plan to broaden the solution with multilingual support and enhanced personalization. As part of JA Worldwide’s vision to build a portfolio of AI agents to enhance student learning outcomes, the team is developing a second agentic coach focused on financial literacy and business planning learning domains.

“When thoughtfully designed and responsibly deployed,” says Stacie Fieth, vice president of education at JA Worldwide, “generative AI can fundamentally strengthen how young people practice, reflect, and grow.” JA Pitch Master is more than a feedback tool; it creates a structured space for students to test ideas, build resilience, and track their progress over time. Our goal with JA Boost is to combine the best of human mentorship with the scalability of technology to ensure that students across all cultures and contexts have access to meaningful, personalized skill development.

JA Pitch Master embodies the spirit of Noble Intelligence, McKinsey’s AI for Social Good program, which applies AI to drive meaningful social impact and strengthen human potential where it matters most. Alongside initiatives such as DISHA, which applies data and AI to improve disaster resilience and response mapping to impact millions of lives and livelihoods, it demonstrates how responsibly deployed technology can create enduring impact for communities worldwide.

McKinsey has also supported JA Worldwide through capability building across country teams via its McKinsey.org programs—Ability to Execute for Nonprofits and Organizational Health Index for Nonprofits—while partnering on a global strategy to align leadership, assess growth and risk, and equip regions to execute at scale.