I often liken McKinsey to my virtual professor — a nickname that’s more truthful than playful. Reason: I’ve cited so many reports and data from this firm that I’ve lost count.

And this professor has just rolled out its generative AI tool named Lilli.

The Story of Lilli

McKinsey has been around for a century, bringing over 100,000 research documents to date. Internal research used to consume a significant two-week chunk of time, even for experienced professionals. McKinsey believed there had to be a better way, and they trusted Lilli was the answer.

Lilli is the brainchild of a team of 70 GenAI experts. She was developed as an AI companion for McKinsey’s knowledge exploration—making it quick and easy for staff to access organizational resources.

How Lilli Works

Users begin by typing their questions. Lilli then scours McKinsey’s archives, extracting five to seven relevant pieces of content, summarizing key points, providing links, and even identifying relevant experts. The tool offers two search options: internal and external sources.

The Name “Lilli”

The McKinsey generative AI gets its name from Lillian Dombrowski, who was the firm’s first professional female hire back in 1945. 

Can You Work with Lilli?

Yes, there are three ways:

Be a McKinseyee

If you’re a McKinsey staff member, the generative AI will be available by year-end.

Or their client

While primarily called an in-house AI, McKinsey said it aimed to support its clients in making their own version of Lilli. This means they’ll help you organize content, make sure data is accurate and private, and make it simple to search and share in different ways. The timeline for it wasn’t mentioned, though.

A DIY Lilli

Lastly, you can create one for yourself. Think of Lilli as a library where you can store all your knowledge, resources, and findings, making them easily searchable in the future. As a non-programming-knowledge content creator, I’d like to think I have succeeded in creating two versions of Lilli:

(By the way, I call my two versions “Anh”, not Lilli actually. Gotta love my name!)

One was made straight out of Google Form. I made it with three simple questions:

• The name of the topic/idea I’d like to store
• A summary of it. I try to list out as many keywords I can think of that can be easily recalled in the future
• Links to resources regarding the topic.

After submitting, my answers are stored in one Google Sheet file. Whenever I’m stuck in writing or need inspiration, I open the Google Sheet that links automatically as the real-time library of my Google Form’s answers. I use Ctrl+F to find what I need. And most of the time, I do. This is quite a straightforward and enjoyable way for me to self-brainstorm.

The other is for my offline self. It’s far cry less efficient than the first one, yet it helps keep me away from the keyboard. And, it is actually my aged 500-page notebook. I jot down every thought I think is worth preserving (even ones I’m not even so sure how I feel about them), and then use sticky bookmarks to make things easier for future searches. 97% of the time I don’t find exactly what I want actually. But it does give me what I need — the peace and pure joy of randomly seeing my own random thoughts.

And I believe you’re more than capable of creating an awesome Lilli for yourself. Chances are, you may have already created Lilli for a while.

Mind sharing briefly about your version of Lilli?

Here’s a sneak peek of my first Anh.