A winning AI playbook, HR’s next era, self-driving vehicles, and more

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CURATED PICKS FOR YOUR DOWNTIME, FROM OUR EDITORS

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Brought to you by Alex Panas, global leader of industries, & Becca Coggins, global leader of functional practices and growth platforms

Welcome to the latest edition of The Weekend Read. We hope you find our perspectives useful. Let us know what you think at Alex_Panas@McKinsey.com and Becca_Coggins@McKinsey.com.

—Alex and Becca

This weekend, catch up on the week’s top insights, including a case study of Blackstone’s AI transformation, the latest HR trends, AI in autonomous-vehicle engineering, and more.

AI creates the most value when organizations redesign how work gets done before automating it. Discover how the successful AI transformation of Blackstone’s Legal & Compliance team was built on clarifying decision ownership, codifying precedent, and redesigning workflows first.

Explore the case study

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The next era of HR is less about people administration and more about capability allocation, according to this year’s HR Monitor report. McKinsey’s Julian Kirchherr, Karel Eloot, Sandra Durth, Ulf Schrader, Vincent Bérubé, and coauthors explore how the global organizations pulling ahead are treating skills, employee development, and AI as one integrated system rather than a collection of HR programs.

Critical insights for HR leaders

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Scaling autonomous driving will depend on making the development of self-driving vehicles faster, cheaper, and more reliable. McKinsey’s Dominik Hepp, Marc de Jong, Martin Kellner, and coauthors examine generative AI’s potential to accelerate autonomous-driving development.

Learn how AI is reshaping autonomous driving

Jonas Vingegaard, Giro d’Italia, Team Visma

Team Visma | Lease a Bike partnered with McKinsey to create a race-intelligence AI system that turns complex race inputs into actionable insights in the heat of the moment. Explore how QuantumBlack, McKinsey’s AI arm, helped the Dutch cycling team make smarter decisions faster.

Drive performance

ALSO NEW

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How corporate–scale-up partnering can boost Europe’s tech competitiveness

Stronger, more systematic partnerships between corporates and scale-ups have the potential to enable both to thrive while helping more innovation reach commercial scale and stay based in the region.

Build stronger corporate–scale-up collaboration

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Private credit in 2025: A maturing industry navigates change

Complexity is increasing and competitive pressures are on the rise. The asset class is becoming less about deploying capital at pace—and more about deploying it with precision.

What it takes to sustain competitive advantage

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The art, science, and technology of geopolitical scenario planning

Strategic foresight is not about predicting the future but setting strategy and building capabilities to navigate multiple potential futures. Here’s how to select and apply five instruments of foresight.

5 instruments of foresight

—Edited by Nadia Wynter, editor, Washington, DC

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AI creates the most value when organizations redesign how work gets done before automating it. Discover how the successful AI transformation of Blackstone’s Legal & Compliance team was built on clarifying decision ownership, codifying precedent, and redesigning workflows first.﻿﻿﻿

﻿Scaling autonomous driving will depend on making the development of self-driving vehicles faster, cheaper, and more reliable. McKinsey’s Dominik Hepp, Marc de Jong, Martin Kellner, and coauthors examine generative AI’s potential to accelerate autonomous-driving development.﻿

﻿Team Visma | Lease a Bike partnered with McKinsey to create a race-intelligence AI system that turns complex race inputs into actionable insights in the heat of the moment. Explore how QuantumBlack, McKinsey’s AI arm, helped the Dutch cycling team make smarter decisions faster.﻿

﻿How corporate–scale-up partnering can boost Europe’s tech competitiveness﻿