# McKinsey Cited Two AI Agent Counts 5,000 Apart in January

By John Kim

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/37701
Published: 2026-10-22T09:53:40.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-22T09:53:40.000Z
Section: Business

> Bob Sternfels cited 20,000 agents in an interview and 25,000 personalized agents as of the prior week at CES; both accounts put human headcount at 40,000.

McKinsey Global Managing Partner Bob Sternfels cited January AI-agent counts 5,000 apart, with the same 40,000 human workforce in each account and combined totals of 60,000 and 65,000.

“60,000, but it’s 40,000 humans and 20,000 agents,” Sternfels said in an interview published Jan. 6. The figure included software agents alongside employees, rather than counting 60,000 human workers.

At a Jan. 6 CES event, Sternfels put McKinsey’s count at 25,000 personalized agents as of the prior week, alongside 40,000 humans. Together, those figures imply a total of 65,000 people and agents. The two remarks do not explain the 5,000 difference or establish whether the agent counts used the same definition or counting method.

In the interview, Sternfels said McKinsey had 3,000 agents a little more than a year and a half earlier. He expected every employee to have access to at least one agent within 18 months. Those remarks describe the firm’s plans and agent count at the time of the interview.

At CES, Sternfels projected that the number of client-facing consultants would rise 25% in 2026. He described McKinsey’s group of employees outside client-facing roles, about half the firm, as 25% smaller, while its output had risen 10%.

Sternfels also said agents saved 1.5 million hours on search and synthesis in 2025 and generated 2.5 million charts over a six-month period. The remarks did not specify the dates covered by that chart total.

The firm was also changing how it charged for some client work. In the January interview, Sternfels said about one-third of McKinsey’s revenue came from arrangements in which it underwrote client outcomes, rather than pure advisory or fee-for-service work. He hoped that share would exceed half before his term ended.