- Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is investing heavily in AI research and development, viewing it as a new pillar of growth.
- According to partner Scott Wilder, BCG has built tens of thousands of custom AI agents for client projects in just 15 months.
- BCG established an internal R&D department to standardize and scale AI tools created by consultants on the front lines.
- Core Philosophy: “Every company has to become a tech company,” and BCG is no exception.
- The innovation model operates across three layers: the data layer, the consultant-built tool layer, and the strategic tool layer developed by leadership.
- At the data layer, BCG builds MCP servers and AI agents on internal and curated public data to automatically retrieve the right data at the right time.
- The middle layer is where consultants perform “vibe-coding,” creating agents for clients; successful tools are sent to R&D for standardization.
- The top layer includes company-wide products like Deckster (creating slides from 800–900 templates), Ava (IT and HR support), and GENE (a communications chatbot).
- BCG has approximately 7–8 corporate-level strategic tools.
- The “forward-deployed consultants” group, inspired by Palantir, plays a key role in creating reusable tools.
- BCG claims to be the world’s largest creator of custom GPTs, with about 36,000 GPTs built.
- Every tool must undergo red teaming, legal review, security, and privacy checks before being added to the internal marketplace.
- An orchestration agent helps employees select the right tools and data.
- Approximately 80% of GPTs come from the front lines, reflecting a bottom-up innovation model.
- An “enablement” network of about 1,000 people trains staff on AI and gathers feedback company-wide.
- BCG operates as a complete product organization, featuring product owners, a UX Center of Excellence, and a centralized crowdsourcing pipeline.
📌 Summary: BCG is transforming from a strategic consulting firm into an “AI product factory,” with over 36,000 agents and a bottom-up innovation model. The combination of front-line consultants, centralized R&D, and strict risk control demonstrates that AI is no longer an experiment. With the message “every company must become a tech company,” BCG is turning itself into living proof of that strategy.
