McKinsey is making job applicants spar with a fake AI client

McKinsey plans to have some undergraduate applicants for business-analyst roles interact with an AI simulation of a client for 10 minutes during interviews, according to The Wall Street Journal. The tool is meant to mirror common consulting scenarios, while human interviewers will observe and evaluate candidates rather than letting the AI score them.

The move shows how professional-services firms are experimenting with AI-assisted hiring to test practical skills in more realistic, scalable ways. Keeping humans in the evaluation loop may help reduce concerns about opaque automated scoring, but it also raises questions about consistency, bias, and whether candidates are being judged on AI-mediated interactions rather than real client dynamics.