Monthly Highlights, February 2026

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Monthly Highlights, February 2026

AI may transform how we work by facilitating workflows between people, agents, and robots—but it still can’t do the hard work of leadership itself. Leadership is ultimately a uniquely human endeavor, and to thrive in today’s environment, organizations must identify and develop leaders who can blend human strengths with digital fluency, write McKinsey Global Managing Partner Bob Sternfels, Senior Partner Daniel Pacthod, and Børge Brende in our featured article.

Other highlights include the following topics:

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why brain capital is a strategic economic asset

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imagining a world in which every country achieves prosperity, progress, and a high quality of life

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how agentic AI is transforming the shopper experience

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how AI and robotics are reshaping both the guest experience and restaurant operations

Editor’s choice

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Building leaders in the age of AI

Leadership is always critical—but AI is making it more important than ever.

The core shift

THIS MONTH’s HIGHLIGHTS

The human advantage: Stronger brains in the age of AI

The rise of artificial intelligence highlights how investment in “brain capital” (brain health and brain skills) can boost resilience, productivity, and growth.
5 levers to activate brain capital

Chris Bradley, Nick Leung, Sven Smit, Janet Bush, and Marc Canal sitting and talking together.

Pulling off another century of human progress

Five of the authors of the McKinsey Global Institute’s new book talk about writing a new narrative of progress.
Achieve more for future generations

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How the best CEOs are meeting the AI moment

CEOs are confronting a make-or-break test of their leadership. Here’s what successful leaders are doing to get AI right.
Tune in now

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The automation curve in agentic commerce

Agentic AI is increasingly a part of shopping, but not all transactions will be automated in the same way. Here’s what agents will handle—and the situations that will call for human involvement.
Unlock new retail advantages

‘You’ve got to be willing to “do,” as opposed to getting disrupted by somebody else’: A conversation with IBM CEO Arvind Krishna

In five years, Krishna has revived the once-stagnant company. With AI and quantum, he sees lots of opportunity ahead.
Unlock growth through innovation

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How the world’s largest restaurant franchise operator uses AI

Flynn Group is testing AI tools that promise to transform how restaurants are run—and how customers experience them.
Transform the restaurant experience

ALSO New

Transforming Europe: Bold moves to lift a continent

How smart people end up in the wrong careers

Passing the baton: Creating value through CEO succession at family businesses

What consumer-packaged-goods companies can learn from disruptor brands

What AI could mean for film and TV production and the industry’s future

The brain economy explained: Why strong brains power strong economies

Agentic AI is here. Is your bank’s frontline team ready?

A US productivity unlock: Investing in frontline workers’ AI skills

Gen AI in M&A: From theory to practice to high performance

The great trade realignment: Asia rising

Bridging the great AI agent and ERP divide to unlock value at scale

Agentic AI and the race to a touchless revenue cycle

Merchants unleashed: How agentic AI transforms retail merchandising

The Global Cooperation Barometer 2026

Harnessing the power of gen AI in private markets

OUT NOW

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McKinsey Quarterly: Digital Edition

Agentic AI is such a powerful force that companies are rethinking the very nature of the corporation. What’s coming? A hybrid workforce of humans working together with virtual and physical AI agents, flat networks of agentic teams structured to propel end-to-end outcomes, real-time personalization and innovation, AI concierges for customers, embedded governance and agentic controls with human accountability, and much more. This could be the largest organizational model shift since the industrial and digital revolutions.

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—Edited by Joyce Yoo, editor, New York

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