Monthly Highlights, August 2026

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Monthly Highlights, August 2026

If employees are ready for AI, why aren't most organizations? New research suggests the biggest barrier to enterprise value isn't AI adoption—it's organizational readiness. In this month's featured story, Aaron De Smet, Drew Goldstein, Holly Price, Tanguy Catlin, and coauthors introduce the three horizons of AI transformation and explain how leaders can move from individual adoption to enterprise-wide reinvention.

Other highlights include the following topics:

•

why CEOs are central to building new businesses

•

developing early-career talent in the age of AI

•

preparing for the next economic chokepoint

•

rewiring B2B sales with AI

Editor’s choice

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From adoption to impact: Three horizons of AI transformation

Most organizations are still early in their AI journeys. A new global survey reveals how companies can progress from individual adoption to enterprise-wide value capture.

Enablement, automation, and reinvention

THIS MONTH’s HIGHLIGHTS

The CEO’s critical role in building new businesses

Venture building works best when it’s part of a dual-track strategy—launching new businesses alongside the core—with clear oversight from the CEO on capital allocation, culture, and capabilities.
4 focus areas for leaders

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Building expertise in the age of AI: Who trains the next generation?

As AI reshapes entry-level work, organizations should rethink how expertise is developed by integrating knowledge management, role design, learning, and coaching into a single system.
Understand the 4-part approach

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Chokepoints: How to respond when the global economy gets squeezed

As the situation in the Strait of Hormuz makes clear, business success increasingly depends on managing global disruption and risk in a three-dimensional way: reroute, replace, and substitute.
Reroute, replace, and substitute

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The future of B2B sales: How growth champions rewire their playbooks with AI

AI pilots are everywhere, but value is not. Growth leaders rewire commercial impact journeys with agentic AI, enabling sellers to deepen customer relations and create real change.
5 impact journeys

From advocacy to action: Malala Yousafzai bets big on women’s sports

Advocacy meets action: Malala Yousafzai bets big on women’s sports

The Nobel Prize winner teams up with McKinsey to bring her women’s empowerment mission into a fast-growing market.
Expand opportunity for women and girls

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The global balance sheet 2026: Imbalance and divergence

Several asset classes grew further out of balance with the economy, raising the possibility of corrections through inflation, asset valuation losses, or, optimally, productivity.
Read more

ALSO New

Is that AI agent worth it? Agentic economics and the modern operating model

How B.TECH transformed into a technology-powered retailer

The real future of work in healthcare

The ‘bridge builder’ COO: Delivering results by engaging stakeholders

Rewiring customer experience for the agentic era

How a 180-year-old news institution prepares for its next reinvention

From instinct to real-time insight: Transforming steel sales with AI

How can the public sector meet the AI moment?

Powering AI: How real is the risk of overbuilding?

Is the AI productivity story at a turning point?

Will you fly—or freeze? How founders can build enduring companies beyond $10 billion

How AI is reshaping the future of the AEC industry

How SOCAR transformed a fertilizer leader in Azerbaijan with industrial AI

OUt now

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What to read next: McKinsey’s 2026 curated book recommendations

Discover the books inspiring CEOs, innovators, and other leaders in McKinsey's annual collection of nearly 100 curated recommendations.

Nearly 100 books worth your time

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McKinsey Classics

The CEO helps a transformation succeed by communicating its significance, modeling the desired changes, building a strong top team, and getting personally involved. Read our 2007 classic “The CEO’s role in leading transformation” to learn more.
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—Edited by Nadia Wynter, editor, Washington, D.C.

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