McKinsey: CEOs of century-old companies explain how they are reinventing themselves with AI to stay competitive

By McKinsey & Company · October 25, 2026.

The email is a McKinsey editorial selection on how companies that have been in business for decades, or even centuries, reinvent themselves to stay competitive. The central idea is that enduring is not just about withstanding the passage of time, but about knowing when and how to reinvent oneself. AI appears in several of the pieces as one of the levers of that reinvention.

Lloyds Banking Group, with more than 250 years of history, is the first case. Its CEO, Charlie Nunn, argues that staying relevant requires maintaining customer trust while also looking "to the future to reinvent itself". In a conversation with Tunde Olanrewaju, a McKinsey senior partner, Nunn explains that the bank uses AI to improve customer service, provide financial insights and broaden access to financial advice. The email sums up the conversation with the idea that trust, curiosity and optimism help leaders rethink their institutions in the age of AI.

The second case is Siemens, with more than 175 years of history. Cedrik Neike, CEO of Digital Industries, spoke with Asutosh Padhi, a McKinsey senior partner. Neike sees AI as key to the company's next reinvention and envisions "AI-native" factories capable of adapting to shifts in the supply chain and in customer demand. He adds that achieving this requires setting clear priorities: "We focus on doing fewer things, but better than anyone else".

The third section focuses on founder CEOs in Asia. In an episode of the Future of Asia podcast, Joydeep Sengupta, a McKinsey senior partner, describes how they balance the short and long term with a commitment to continuous improvement. He puts it this way: it is not just about high-impact innovations, but about "getting up every day and striving to be better than the day before". The accompanying link discusses the "owner mindset" and how the combination of Eastern philosophy and Western management culture gives these CEOs a particular advantage.

The email also lists other interviews. One is with the CEO of Boerse Stuttgart Group, which has 160 years of experience and is Europe's sixth-largest exchange group. It is presented as a player helping to position Europe for the future through digital and blockchain innovation and financial infrastructure. Another is with Daisy Veerasingham, CEO of the Associated Press, a 180-year-old news institution. She discusses AI, the economics of trustworthy content and why preserving editorial independence matters more than preserving any particular corporate structure. The last is with Stephan Seifert, president of Körber, which over ten years went from being a machinery-only company to offering a full technology stack. According to the email, that shift enabled growth of almost 100 percent.

The email closes with an invitation to a McKinsey Live event on November 12. Andy West, Whitney Zimmerman and Tim Koller will present ideas from their upcoming book, "Strategy and Value: The Four Foundations That Drive Long-Term Performance". They will cover how to drive growth and returns, manage for the long term, capitalize on market attractiveness and build competitive advantage. It also points readers to McKinsey Themes and the McKinsey Insights app.

As industry context, the email offers no figures or technical details on the AI implementations. It is limited to headlines and interview excerpts, so what is set out here is what the body of the message allows us to state.