OUR BEST IDEAS FOR THE C-SUITE

Welcome to the latest edition of The CEO Shortlist, a biweekly newsletter of our best ideas for the C-suite. In this issue, we look at the management challenge with today’s technologies and the impending arrival of the next big thing. We appreciate the opportunity to connect and hope you find our perspectives useful and thought provoking. You can reach us at Alex_Panas@McKinsey.com and Becca_Coggins@McKinsey.com. Thank you, as ever.

—Alex and Becca

The AI operating system. Forty percent of companies are scaling AI agents, but just 6 percent report a material rise in earnings. What’s missing? We suggest it’s an AI operating system (OS), a management layer that works like a second brain for the enterprise. The AI OS puts accumulated data and institutional knowledge to work so people from the C-suite to the front line can make better decisions faster. Early deployments of this system have accelerated planning cycles by up to ten times and started to deliver value in about 12 weeks. CEOs will need to evolve with it, moving from calendar-driven reviews toward continuous intervention and putting greater weight on human judgment. Our colleagues outline four priority actions to get started. 

Three horizons of quantum. Quantum computing could add up to $2.7 trillion to the world economy by 2035, and more than 300 organizations are already collaborating with quantum providers. If hardware makers deliver on their road maps, fault-tolerant machines could arrive within five years and trigger Q-Day, the point at which quantum computers can break today’s public-key cryptography. As a result, even companies that do not deploy quantum computing directly will need to update their security platforms. Our new research maps three horizons of quantum development and sets out what leaders can do in each. 

We hope you find these insights helpful. See you in a couple of weeks with more McKinsey ideas for the CEO and others in the C-suite.

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