McKinsey: the people and costs behind taking AI beyond the pilot

By McKinsey & Company · Sat, 31 Oct 2026 14:40:30 +0000.

McKinsey is publishing a collection of its "Explainers" titled "Making AI work: The people and costs behind the technology". It starts from a central idea: when companies move beyond the AI experimentation phase, they face practical questions. Who has the expertise to turn a promising technology into working solutions, how much it will cost to deploy and maintain them, and how to ensure the investment delivers meaningful returns.

One focus is the role of the "forward-deployed engineer" (FDE), a specialist who works inside the client company's systems to develop tailored solutions. According to Martin Harrysson, the role demands more than technical knowledge: these engineers must understand how decisions are made, identify opportunities to improve processes and work with employees so that the new tools deliver results. Nick Robson adds that getting the most out of AI often requires companies to rethink their workflows and the way employees interact with the technology.

These decisions carry significant financial implications. According to research cited by Kaavini Takkar, AI spending nearly quadruples on average when projects move from pilot to production. Wasim Lala also notes that a poorly designed agent can consume up to 30 times more tokens than an efficient one. In the Explainer "What does AI really cost?", Takkar, Lala and Lari Hämäläinen examine why AI costs are hard to predict and how to better assess whether investments pay off.

The email lists other Explainers in the collection:

- "What is a forward-deployed engineer?": three McKinsey leaders explain how FDEs help deliver AI impact by working inside another company's systems. - "What does AI really cost?": moving an AI tool from pilot to production can nearly quadruple its cost, and the experts explain why and how to tell whether it is worth it. - "AI in five industries: What's now, and what's next": video explainers in which McKinsey partners review, sector by sector, what is happening with AI now and what is expected. - "AI-powered software development: How technology is rewriting the rules": from individual productivity hacks to the reinvention of workflows and roles, and what sets apart the companies that capture value. - "Where AI is creating real value in real estate": agentic AI is moving real estate from isolated tools to a full transformation of workflows, with new value and redefined roles. - "Agentic AI explained: When machines don't just chat, but act": three experts explain how agentic AI could reshape workflows, decision-making and collaboration between humans and machines.

The email also announces a McKinsey Live event on November 12 with Andy West, Whitney Zimmerman and Tim Koller. They will present their upcoming book, "Strategy and Value: The Four Foundations That Drive Long-Term Performance". This event is not directly related to AI.

The body of the email is an editorial summary that points to other content. It includes no further data or methodology behind the figures cited (the near-quadrupling of spending and the 30x factor in tokens), so they cannot be expanded on here.