Alex Singla is a senior partner with McKinsey’s Chicago office and co-leads QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, globally. He helps companies transform by deploying digital and data and analytics solutions and ensuring these solutions go from pilot to full-scale adoption and scaling. He passionately embeds change management and capability building as core elements to every transformation to ensure sustainable and step-change improvements in growth, effectiveness, cost, and customer experience. In his over 25 years with McKinsey, Alex has advised clients on topics including strategy, digital and analytics, enterprise transformation, service operations, distribution, end-to-end customer journeys, technology, risk assessment, warranty and claims, marketing, and cost.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with CIO Magazine, Alex shared insight into his career journey, passions, and vision for the future of AI and innovation, offering valuable perspectives on leadership, technology, and transformation. He also shared personal hobbies and interests, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Can you walk us through your career journey and highlight key milestones that have shaped your expertise in AI, innovation, and sustainability?
I’ve spent more than 25 years at McKinsey at this point, and while my career focus is now on AI and related technologies, I actually spent the first 15 years as a more traditional business consultant. It was about a decade ago that we started bringing big data analytics and machine learning capabilities into client programs, and I was able to witness firsthand their unique potential for solving complex business challenges.
My formal education is in business and finance, culminating in an MBA from the University of Chicago, so I approach AI and innovation from a very practical, business-oriented perspective. Having spent so many years working at the front-line of business operations, I became inspired by the possibilities AI brings, especially given its dramatic improvements in recent years, and wanted to ensure that it gets baked into frontline workflows and change management. These are challenges I’ve been working to solve for my entire career, so my interest in and affinity for AI really stems from its unique ability to offer more powerful, effective solutions, and open up new possibilities for improved products and services.
What do you love the most about your current role?
AI is the most dynamic, transformative technology the world has seen in many years, and we’re just beginning to see its impact. I’m at the leading edge of that transformation every day. It’s an incredibly exciting place to be, and it means I’m surrounded by an extraordinary team of world-class technologists, who are full of passion and deeply committed to shaping AI for the benefit of our clients and humanity overall. It’s a constant source of inspiration to see the expertise and creativity they bring to solving problems, and the wide-open sense of possibility that permeates their work.
The pace of change is also exhilarating. AI is capable of things this month that weren’t possible last month, and next year will be an entirely new world. Everyone wants to talk about it: Not just business leaders around the world, but also friends in my neighborhood, and even my kids! It’s one thing to witness a wave of dramatic innovation, but something else entirely to be part of that wave. To get more specific, this sense of possibility and positive transformation is what keeps me excited and engaged in my current role.
How do you see the landscape of AI and digital transformation evolving in the next 5 years, and what opportunities or challenges do you foresee?
In very broad terms, I’d say we’re just getting started with AI and digital transformation: the power and capability of underlying models is growing exponentially, and as more organizations learn to adopt and implement it effectively, its impact is growing just as rapidly.
To get more specific, I think the advances we’re seeing in reasoning models are going to have a tremendous impact on the variety of ways AI can be used to generate value; in particular, its potential for acting more autonomously, in teams of specialized, interoperable agents.
Can you elaborate on QuantumBlack’s structured method for deploying cutting-edge analytics techniques, and how it helps organizations achieve multi-year transformations?
QuantumBlack’s approach to AI transformation has several unique elements that have helped client organizations achieve real value.
For one thing, we operate on a Hybrid Intelligence model, bringing world-class expertise to every transformation and every program, including QuantumBlack’s leading AI talent, combined with an incredible range of deep domain expertise from McKinsey’s 100-year history working across industries and business categories. It’s an integrated approach that drives every tech solution we devise, to ensure that they’re actually usable on the front line and that real people can integrate them into their everyday workflows. This is markedly different from the approach you might see from an AI-first technology consultancy, and, I think, shows just how committed we are to effective implementation.
Related to this is McKinsey and QuantumBlack’s unique focus on building client capability for lasting impact. That includes hiring and training AI talent within their organization, providing ready-to-use tech and data assets (70-80% prebuilt and proven models) to de-risk change processes, and leveraging our proven Rewired framework for digital transformation and scaling AI. The Rewired framework in particular has proven invaluable in getting CEO/CXO alignment, which is critical in any kind of major business transformation, whether tech-focused or otherwise.
All of this is augmented by QuantumBlack Labs, our software development and R&D arm, and an open ecosystem of tech alliances that includes partnerships with OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, NVIDIA, and more.
What principles guide your leadership style, and how do you motivate your teams to drive innovation and transformation?
My leadership style is rooted in the belief that people do their best work when they feel seen, empowered, and inspired. I strive to create an environment where everyone, whether they’re a business analyst, client, or executive assistant, feels they can grow, contribute meaningfully, and bring their whole self to the table.
I’m a strong believer in continuous improvement, not just for our teams and clients, but for ourselves as individuals. That means fostering a culture where curiosity is encouraged, ideas are welcomed, and learning never stops. I’ve found that humor and humility go a long way (influenced by my Midwestern roots) in making that culture feel real and accessible.
Innovation doesn’t happen by accident. It takes intentional investment in people, in R&D, and in a forward-looking mindset. While we deliver on today’s challenges, we’re also always scanning the horizon: What’s next in technology? What’s changing in how our clients operate? What emerging opportunities can we prepare for now?
At the end of the day, leadership for me means helping others see what they’re capable of and making the journey there both exciting and fun.
What are some of your passions outside of work? What do you like to do in your time off?
More than anything, I love spending time with my family. I’ve got three teenagers who are a ton of fun, and my wife and I take every opportunity to go on adventures with them together, from traveling to skiing to golf and more. I’m also a member of the board of trustees of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
Beyond that, many of my interests outside work are actually not so far from what inspires me in my current role. Supporting innovators is a personal passion, so I dedicate part of my personal time to it in other forms. I’m a guest mentor at the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which guides and supports innovative technology startups. I’m also on the Advisory Council for the Center for Applied AI (CAAI) at the University of Chicago’s Booth School, which supports cutting-edge research at the intersection of AI and social sciences.
What are your goals and aspirations for the next phase of your career, and how do you see yourself contributing to the field of AI and innovation?
It’s hard for me to imagine a place where I could make a greater contribution to AI and innovation, especially in terms of its impact on business and customer experience, than in my role leading QuantumBlack. In the five years since I came onboard, QB has already grown dramatically, developing a wide range of proprietary and open-source AI resources which are embraced around the world, largely through the efforts of QB Labs.
It’s both gratifying and fascinating to see what new things are possible, and what we’re able to create and implement, through this combination of talent, passion, and partnership. I can’t wait to see where it takes us next.
What advice would you give to young professionals looking to build a career in AI, innovation, and sustainability?
AI is changing so fast that even experienced developers and data scientists are having to re-learn huge bodies of knowledge every few months, which means that an engaged, diligent newcomer can develop a useful level of expertise.
I’d also encourage young professionals to look beyond those aspects of AI that are getting the most hype and attention. While the models are getting more powerful, there’s still a huge amount of work to be done in implementation, the “last mile” of AI, where it interacts with humans and solves real-world problems. Solving the problem of how to apply new AI capability to familiar problems is going to take an incredibly wide range of expertise, not just “AI” expertise.