MGI The Age of Analytics Executive Summary
MGI The Age of Analytics Executive Summary
MGI The Age of Analytics Executive Summary
COMPETING IN A
DATA-DRIVEN WORLD
DECEMBER 2016
IN COLLABORATION WITH
MCKINSEY ANALYTICS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In the 25years since its founding, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) has sought to develop
a deeper understanding of the evolving global economy. As the business and economics
research arm of McKinsey & Company, MGI aims to provide leaders in the commercial,
public, and social sectors with the facts and insights on which to base management and
policy decisions. The Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania ranked MGI the
worlds number-one private-sector think tank in its 2015 Global Think Tank Index.
MGI research combines the disciplines of economics and management, employing the
analytical tools of economics with the insights of business leaders. Our micro-to-macro
methodology examines microeconomic industry trends to better understand the broad
macroeconomic forces affecting business strategy and public policy. MGIs in-depth reports
have covered more than 20 countries and 30 industries. Current research focuses on six
themes: productivity and growth, natural resources, labor markets, the evolution of global
financial markets, the economic impact of technology and innovation, and urbanization.
Recent reports have assessed the economic benefits of tackling gender inequality,
a new era of global competition, Chinese innovation, and digital globalization. MGI is
led by four McKinsey & Company senior partners: JacquesBughin, JamesManyika,
JonathanWoetzel, and Frank Mattern, MGIs chairman. MichaelChui, SusanLund,
AnuMadgavkar, and JaanaRemes serve as MGI partners. Project teams are led by
the MGI partners and a group of senior fellows, and include consultants from McKinsey
offices around the world. These teams draw on McKinseys global network of partners
and industry and management experts. Input is provided by the MGI Council, which co-
leads projects and provides guidance; members are AndresCadena, RichardDobbs,
KatyGeorge, RajatGupta, EricHazan, EricLabaye, AchaLeke, ScottNyquist, GaryPinkus,
ShirishSankhe, OliverTonby, and EckartWindhagen. In addition, leading economists,
including Nobel laureates, act as research advisers.
The partners of McKinsey fund MGIs research; it is not commissioned by any business,
government, or other institution. For further information about MGI and to download reports,
please visit www.mckinsey.com/mgi.
MCKINSEY ANALYTICS
McKinsey Analytics helps clients achieve better performance through data, working
together with them to build analytics-driven organizations and providing end-to-end support
covering strategy, operations, data science, implementation, and change management.
Engagements range from use-case specific applications to full-scale analytics
transformations. Teams of McKinsey consultants, data scientists, and engineers work with
clients to identify opportunities, assess available data, define solutions, establish optimal
hosting environments, ingest data, develop cutting-edge algorithms, visualize outputs, and
assess impact while building capabilities to sustain and expand it.
Most companies are capturing only a fraction of the potential value from data and analytics. Our 2011
report estimated this potential in five domains; revisiting them today shows a great deal of value still on
the table. The greatest progress has occurred in location-based services and in retail, both areas with
digital native competitors. In contrast, manufacturing, the public sector, and health care have captured
less than 30percent of the potential value we highlighted five years ago. Further, new opportunities
have arisen since 2011, making the gap between the leaders and laggards even bigger.
The biggest barriers companies face in extracting value from data and analytics are organizational;
many struggle to incorporate data-driven insights into day-to-day business processes. Another
challenge is attracting and retaining the right talentnot only data scientists but business translators
who combine data savvy with industry and functional expertise.
Data and analytics are changing the basis of competition. Leading companies are using their
capabilities not only to improve their core operations but to launch entirely new business models. The
network effects of digital platforms are creating a winner-take-most dynamic in some markets.
Data is now a critical corporate asset. It comes from the web, billions of phones, sensors, payment
systems, cameras, and a huge array of other sourcesand its value is tied to its ultimate use. While
data itself will become increasingly commoditized, value is likely to accrue to the owners of scarce
data, to players that aggregate data in unique ways, and especially to providers of valuable analytics.
Data and analytics underpin several disruptive models. Introducing new types of data sets
(orthogonal data) can disrupt industries, and massive data integration capabilities can break through
organizational and technological silos, enabling new insights and models. Hyperscale digital platforms
can match buyers and sellers in real time, transforming inefficient markets. Granular data can be used
to personalize products and servicesand, most intriguingly, health care. New analytical techniques
can fuel discovery and innovation. Above all, data and analytics can enable faster and more evidence-
based decision making.
Recent advances in machine learning can be used to solve a tremendous variety of problemsand
deep learning is pushing the boundaries even further. Systems enabled by machine learning can
provide customer service, manage logistics, analyze medical records, or even write news stories. The
value potential is everywhere, even in industries that have been slow to digitize. These technologies
could generate productivity gains and an improved quality of lifealong with job losses and other
disruptions. Previous MGI research found that 45percent of work activities could potentially be
automated by currently demonstrated technologies; machine learning can be an enabling technology
for the automation of 80percent of those activities. Breakthroughs in natural language processing
could expand that impact even further.
Data and analytics are already shaking up multiple industries, and the effects will only become more
pronounced as adoption reaches critical mass. An even bigger wave of change is looming on the horizon
as deep learning reaches maturity, giving machines unprecedented capabilities to think, problem-solve,
and understand language. Organizations that are able to harness these capabilities effectively will be able
to create significant value and differentiate themselves, while others will find themselves increasingly at
a disadvantage.
The age of analytics:
Competing in a data-driven world
Only a fraction of the value we envisioned in 2011 has been captured to date
European Union United States Manufacturing United States Location-based
public sector health care retail data
Data and analytics fuel 6 disruptive models that As data ecosystems evolve, value
change the nature of competition will accrue to providers of analytics,
but some data generators and
Data-driven aggregators will have unique value
discovery and Value share
innovation
Generate Aggregate Analyze
Massive
data Radical
integration personalization
Value
Data
Volume of data and use cases per player
Generate Aggregate Analyze
Hyperscale, Orthogonal
real-time data sets
matching
Volume
Enhanced
decision
making
Back in 2011, the McKinsey Global Institute published a report highlighting the
transformational potential of big data.1 Five years later, we remain convinced that this
potential has not been overhyped. In fact, we now believe that our 2011 analyses gave only a
partial view. The range of applications and opportunities has grown even larger today.
The companies at the forefront of these trends are using their capabilities to tackle business
problems with a whole new mindset. In some cases, they have introduced data-driven
business models that have taken entire industries by surprise. Digital natives have an
enormous advantage, and to keep up with them, incumbents need to apply data and
analytics to the fundamentals of their existing business while simultaneously shifting the
basis of competition. In an environment of increasing volatility, legacy organizations need
to have one eye on high-risk, high-reward moves of their own, whether that means entering
new markets or changing their business models. At the same time, they have to apply
analytics to improve their core operations. This may involve identifying new opportunities
on the revenue side, using analytics insights to streamline internal processes, and building
mechanisms for experimentation to enable continuous learning and feedback.
Organizations that pursue this two-part strategy will be ready to take advantage of
opportunities and thwart potential disruptorsand they have to assume that those
disruptors are right around the corner. Data and analytics have altered the dynamics in many
industries, and change will only accelerate as machine learning and deep learning develop
capabilities to think, problem-solve, and understand language. The potential uses of these
technologies are remarkably broad, even for sectors that have been slow to digitize. As we
enter a world of self-driving cars, personalized medicine, and intelligent robots, there will be
enormous new opportunities as well as significant risksnot only for individual companies
but for society as a whole.
1
Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity, McKinsey Global Institute, June 2011.
Exhibit E1
There has been uneven progress in capturing value from data and analytics
Value captured
Potential impact: 2011 research % Major barriers
Manufacturing2 Up to 50% lower product development cost Siloed data in legacy IT systems
Up to 25% lower operating cost 20 Leadership skeptical of impact
Up to 30% gross margin increase 30
US health care $300 billion value per year Need to demonstrate clinical
~0.7% annual productivity growth 10 utility to gain acceptance
20 Interoperability and data sharing
US retail: Retailers can mine a trove of transaction-based and behavioral data from
their customers. Thin margins (especially in the grocery sector) and pressure from
industry-leading early adopters such as Amazon and Walmart have created strong
incentives to put that data to work in everything from cross-selling additional products to
reducing costs throughout the entire value chain. The US retail sector has realized 30 to
40percent of the potential margin improvements and productivity growth we envisioned
Future of decision making (big data)
in 2011, but again, a great deal of value has gone to consumers.
ES Manufacturing: Manufacturing industries have achieved only about 20 to 30percent
mc 1205 of the potential value we estimated in 2011and most has gone to a handful of industry
leaders. Within research and design, design-to-value applications have seen the
greatest uptick in adoption, particularly among carmakers. Some industry leaders have
developed digital models of the entire production process (digital factories). More
companies have integrated sensor data-driven operations analytics, often reducing
10-20%
The EU public sector: Our 2011 report analyzed how the European Unions public
sector could use data and analytics to make government services more efficient,
reduce fraud and errors in transfer payments, and improve tax collection, potentially
of the potential
achieving some 250billion worth of annual savings. But only about 10 to 20percent of
value has been
this has materialized. Some agencies have moved more interactions online, and many
captured in the
(particularly tax agencies) have introduced pre-filled forms. But across Europe and other
public sector and advanced economies, adoption and capabilities vary greatly. The complexity of existing
health care systems and the difficulty of attracting scarce analytics talent with public-sector salaries
have slowed progress. Despite this, we see even wider potential today for societies to
use analytics to make more evidence-based decisions in many aspects of government.
Digital America: A tale of the haves and have-mores, McKinsey Global Institute, December 2015; and Digital
2
Europe: Pushing the frontier, capturing the benefits, McKinsey Global Institute, June 2016.
Exhibit E2
Data modeling
Internal black box Process redesign Capability building
USE
CASES/ DATA MODELING WORKFLOW
ADOPTION
SOURCES ECOSYSTEM INSIGHTS INTEGRATION
OF VALUE
External Heuristic insights Tech enablement Change management
smart box
Clearly articulating Gathering data from Applying linear and Redesigning Building frontline
the business need internal systems and nonlinear modeling processes and management
and projected impact external sources to derive new Developing an capabilities
Outlining a clear Appending key insights intuitive user Proactively
vision of how the external data Codifying and testing interface that is managing change
business would use Creating an analytic heuristics integrated into day- and tracking
the solution sandbox across the to-day workflow adoption
Enhancing data organization Automating with performance
(deriving new (informing predictor workflows indicators
predictor variables) variables)
Data scientists, in particular, are in high demand. Our 2011 report hypothesized that
demand for data scientists would outstrip supply. This is in fact what we see in the labor
market today, despite the fact that universities are adding data and analytics programs and
that other types of training programs are proliferating. Average wages for data scientists
in the United States rose by approximately 16percent a year from 2012 to 2014.4 This far
3
The need to lead in data and analytics, McKinsey & Company survey, McKinsey.com, April 2016, available at
http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/business-technology/our-insights/the-need-to-lead-in-data-
and-analytics. The online survey, conducted in September 2015, garnered responses from more than 500
executives across a variety of regions, industries, and company sizes.
4
Beyond the talent shortage: How tech candidates search for jobs, Indeed.com, September 2015.
This trend is likely to continue in the near term. While we estimate that the number of
graduates from data science programs could increase by a robust 7percent per year, our
high-case scenario projects even greater (12percent) annual growth in demand, which
would lead to a shortfall of some 250,000 data scientists. But a countervailing force could
ease this imbalance in the medium term: data preparation, which accounts for more than
50percent of data science work, could be automated. Whether that dampens the demand
for data scientists or simply enables data scientists to shift their work toward analysis and
other activities remains to be seen.
Many organizations focus on the need for data scientists, assuming their presence alone
will enable an analytics transformation. But another equally vital role is that of the business
translator who serves as the link between analytical talent and practical applications to
business questions. In addition to being data savvy, business translators need to have deep
organizational knowledge and industry or functional expertise. This enables them to ask
the data science team the right questions and to derive the right insights from their findings.
It may be possible to outsource analytics activities, but business translator roles require
proprietary knowledge and should be more deeply embedded into the organization. Many
organizations are building these capabilities from within.
2M-4M
We estimate there could be demand for approximately twomillion to fourmillion business
translators in the United States alone over the next decade. Given the roughly 9.5million
US graduates in business and in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and
projected US
mathematics expected over the same period, nearly 20 to 40percent of these graduates
demand for
would need to go into business translator roles to meet demand.5 Today that figure is
business
only about 10percent. To reduce this mismatch, wages may have to increase, or more
translators over companies will need to implement their own training programs.6
the next decade
As data grows more complex, distilling it and bringing it to life through visualization is
becoming critical to help make the results of data analyses digestible for decision makers.
We estimate that demand for visualization grew roughly 50percent annually from 2010
to 2015.7 In many instances today, organizations are seeking data scientist or business
translator candidates who can also execute visualizations. However, we expect that
medium-size and large organizations, as well as analytics service providers, will increasingly
create specialized positions for candidates who combine a strong understanding of data
with user interface, user experience, and graphic design skills.
5
Non-STEM graduates with quantitative skills can also fill business translator roles.
6
Sam Ransbotham, David Kiron, and Pamela Kirk Prentice, The talent dividend: Analytics talent is driving
competitive advantage at data-oriented companies, MIT Sloan Management Review, April 25, 2015.
7
Based on using the Burning Glass job postings database to search for postings including any of the following
skills: data visualization, Tableau, Qlikview, and Spotfire. Normalized with the total number of job postings.
8
Michael Chui and James Manyika, Competition at the digital edge: Hyperscale businesses, McKinsey
Quarterly, March 2015.
The relative value of various assets has shifted. Where previous titans of industry poured
billions into factories and equipment, the new leaders invest heavily in digital platforms, data,
and analytical talent. New digital native players can circumvent traditional barriers to entry,
such as the need to build traditional fixed assets, which enables them to enter markets with
surprising speed. Amazon challenged the rest of the retail sector without building stores
(though it does have a highly digitized physical distribution network), fintechs are providing
financial services without physical bank branches, Netflix is changing the media landscape
without connecting cables to customers homes, and Airbnb has introduced a radical new
model in the hospitality sector without building hotels. But some digital natives are now
erecting new barriers to entry themselves; platforms may have such strong network effects
that they give operators a formidable advantage within a given market.
The leading firms have a remarkable depth of analytical talent deployed on a variety of
problemsand they are actively looking for ways to enter other industries. These companies
can take advantage of their scale and data insights to add new business lines, and those
expansions are increasingly blurring traditional sector boundaries.9 Apple and Alibaba,
for instance, have introduced financial products and services, while Google is developing
autonomous cars. The importance of data has also upended the traditional relationship
between organizations and their customers since every interaction generates information.
Sometimes the data itself is so prized that companies offer free services in order to obtain
it; this is the case with Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Tencent, and many others. An
underlying barter system is at work, particularly in the consumer space, as individuals gain
access to digital services in return for data about their behaviors and transactions.
9
Playing to win: The new global competition for corporate profits, McKinsey Global Institute, September 2015.
Data generation and collection: The source and platform where data are
initially captured.
Data aggregation: Processes and platforms for combining data from multiple sources.
Data analysis: The gleaning of insights from data that can be acted upon.
Usually, the biggest opportunities are unlikely to be in directly monetizing data. As data
become easier to collect and as storage costs go down, most data are becoming more
commoditized. Proxies now exist for data that were once scarce; Google Trends, for
instance, offers a free proxy for public sentiment data that previously would have been
collected through phone surveys.
However, there are important exceptions to the commoditization trend. When access is
limited by physical barriers or collection is expensive, data will hold its value. An important
case in which value can accrue to data generation and collection involves market-making
or social media platforms with strong network effects. In certain arenas, a small number
of players establish such critical mass that they are in a position to collect and own the
vast majority of user behavior data generated in these ecosystems. But in the absence of
these types of exceptional supply constraints, simply selling raw data is likely to generate
diminishing returns over time.
Another role in the data ecosystem involves aggregating information from different sources.
In general, this capability is becoming more accessible and less expensive, but this role can
be valuable when certain conditions apply. Data aggregation adds value when combining,
processing, and aggregating data is technically difficult or organizationally challenging
(for example, when aggregating involves coordinating access across diverse sources).
Some companies have built business models around serving as third-party aggregators
for competitors within a given industry, and this model has the potential to create network
effects as well.
The third part of the data ecosystem, analytics, is where we expect to see the biggest
opportunities in the future. The provider of analytics understands the value being generated
by those insights and is thus best positioned to capture a portion of that value. Data
analytics tools, like other software, already command large margins. Combining analytical
tools with business insights for decision makers is likely to multiply the value even further.
Increasingly complex data and analytics will require sophisticated translation, and use
cases will be very firm-specific. Bad analysis can destroy the potential value of high-quality
data, while great analysis can squeeze insights from even mediocre data. In addition, the
scarcity of analytics talent is driving up the cost of these services. Given the size of the
opportunities, firms in other parts of the ecosystem are scrambling to stake out a niche in
the analytics market. Data aggregators are offering to integrate clients data and perform
analysis as a service. One-stop shops offering integrated technology stacks are adding
analytics capabilities, such as IBM Watson, as are other professional services and business
intelligence firms.
Exhibit E3
Data and analytics underpin six disruptive models, and certain characteristics make individual domains susceptible
REPEATS in report
kind of standardized data to make decisions, bringing in fresh types of data sets to
supplement those already in use can change the basis of competition. New entrants with
privileged access to these orthogonal data sets can pose a uniquely powerful challenge
to incumbents. We see this playing out in property and casualty insurance, where new
companies have entered the marketplace with telematics data that provides insight into
driving behavior. This is orthogonal to the demographic data that had previously been used
for underwriting. Other domains could be fertile ground for bringing in orthogonal data from
the internet of things (IoT). Connected light fixtures, which sense the presence of people
in a room and have been sold with the promise of reducing energy usage, generate data
exhaust that property managers can use to optimize physical space planning. Even in
human resources, some organizations have secured employee buy-in to wear devices that
capture data and yield insights into the real social networks that exist in the workplace,
enabling these organizations to optimize collaboration through changes in work spaces.
Orthogonal data will rarely replace the data that are already in use in a domain; it is more
likely that an organization will integrate orthogonal data with existing data. Within the other
Up to By 2030 mobility services, such as ride sharing and car sharing, could account for more
$2.5T
than 15 to 20percent of total passenger vehicle miles globally. This growthand the
resulting hit to the taxi industrymay be only a hint of what is to come. Automakers are
the biggest question mark. While sales will likely continue to grow in absolute numbers, we
potential economic
estimate that the shift toward mobility services could halve the growth rate of global vehicle
impact from sales by 2030. Consumers could save on car purchases, fuel, and parking. If mobility
continued adoption services attain 10 to 30percent adoption among low-mileage urban vehicle users, the
of mobility services ensuing economic impact could reach $845billion to some $2.5trillion globally by 2025.
by 2025 Some of this value will surely go to consumer surplus, while some will go to the providers of
these platforms and mobility services.
This capability could have profound implications for the way health care is delivered if the
sector can incorporate the behavioral, genetic, and molecular data connected with many
individual patients. The declining costs of genome sequencing, the advent of proteomics,
and the growth of real-time monitoring technologies make it possible to generate this kind
of new, ultra-granular data. These data can reshape health care in two profound ways.
First, they can help address information asymmetries and incentive problems in the health-
care system. Now that a more complete view of the patient is available, incentives could
be changed for hospitals and other providers to shift their focus from disease treatment
to wellness and prevention, saving huge sums on medical expenditures and improving
the quality of life. Second, having more granular and complete data on individual patients
can make treatments more precise. Pharmaceutical and medical device companies
have enormous possibilities in R&D for accelerating drug discovery, although they will be
challenged to create new business models to deliver treatments tailored to smaller, targeted
patient populations. Treatments, dosages, and care settings can be personalized to
individuals, leading to more effective outcomes with fewer side effects and reduced costs.
Personalized medicine could reduce health-care costs while allowing people to enjoy
longer, healthier, and more productive lives. The total impact could range from $2trillion
Up to Retail banking, for instance, is an industry rich with data on customers transactions,
$260B
financial status, and demographics. But few institutions have made the most of the data
due to internal barriers and the variable quality of the information itself. Surmounting
these barriers is critical now that social media, call center discussions, video footage from
potential global
branches, and data acquired from external sources and partners can be used to form a
impact of massive more complete picture of customers. Massive data integration has significant potential for
data integration in retail banks. It can enable better cross-selling, the development of personalized products,
retail banking dynamic pricing, better risk assessment, and more effective marketingand it can help
firms achieve more competitive cost structures than many incumbent institutions. All
told, we estimate a potential economic impact of $110billion to $170billion in the retail
banking industry in developed markets and approximately $60billion to $90billion in
emerging markets.
Additionally, companies in other sectors can become part of the financial services
ecosystem if they bring in orthogonal datasuch as non-financial data that provides a more
comprehensive and detailed view of the customer. These players may have large customer
bases and advanced analytics capabilities created for their core businesses, and they can
use these advantages to make rapid moves across sector boundaries. Alibabas creation of
Alipay and Apples unveiling of Apple Pay are prime examples of this trend.
In the realm of process innovation, data and analytics are helping organizations determine
how to structure teams, resources, and workflows. High-performing teams can be many
times more productive than low-performing teams, so understanding this variance and how
to build more effective collaboration is a huge opportunity for organizations. This involves
looking at issues such as the complementarity of skills, optimal team sizes, whether teams
need to work together in person, what past experience or training is important, and even
how their personalities may mesh. Data and analytics can test hypotheses and find new
patterns that may not have even occurred to managers. Vast amounts of email, calendar,
locational, and other data are available to understand how people work together and
communicate, all of which can lead to new insights about improving performance.
In product innovation, data and analytics can transform research and development in areas
such as materials science, synthetic biology, and life sciences. Leading pharmaceutical
companies are using data and analytics to aid with drug discovery. Data from a variety of
sources could better determine the chemical compounds that would serves as effective
drug treatments for a variety of diseases. AstraZeneca and Human Longevity are partnering
There are many examples of how this can play out in industries and domains across the
economy. Smart cities, for example, are one of the most promising settings for applying
the ability of machines and algorithms to process huge quantities of information in a
fraction of the time it takes humans. Using sensors to improve traffic flows and the internet
of things to enable utilities to reduce waste and keep infrastructure systems working at
top efficiency are just two of the myriad possible municipal applications. One of the most
promising applications of data and analytics is in the prevention of medical errors. Advanced
analytical support tools can flag potential allergies or dangerous drug interactions for
doctors and pharmacists alike, ensuring that their decisions are consistent and reliable.
And finally, perhaps no area of human decision making is quite as opaque and clouded by
asymmetric information as hiring. Data and analytics have the potential to create a more
transparent labor market by giving employers and job seekers access to data on the supply
and demand for particular skills, the wages associated with various jobs, and the value of
different degree programs.
Some machine learning techniques, such as regressions, support vector machines, and
k-means clustering, have been in use for decades. Others, while developed previously,
have become viable only now that vast quantities of data and unprecedented processing
power are available. Deep learning, a frontier area of research within machine learning,
uses neural networks with many layers (hence the label deep) to push the boundaries of
machine capabilities. Data scientists have recently made breakthroughs using deep learning
to recognize objects and faces and to understand and generate language. Reinforcement
learning is used to identify the best actions to take now in order to reach some future goal.
These type of problems are common in games but can be useful for solving dynamic
optimization and control theory problemsexactly the type of issues that come up
in modeling complex systems in fields such as engineering and economics. Transfer
learning focuses on storing knowledge gained while solving one problem and applying it
to a different problem. Machine learning, combined with other techniques, could have an
enormous range of uses (see ExhibitE4 and Box E1, The impact of machine learning).
Exhibit E4
Machine learning can be combined with other types of analytics to solve a large swath of business problems
Clustering Regression
Resource allocation
(e.g., k-means) (e.g., logistic)
Classification
Sorting Predictive maintenance
(e.g., support vector machines)
Classification
Prediction
Generation
Machine learning can help solve classification, prediction, and generation problems
Classification Classify/label visual objects Identify objects, faces in images and video
Classify/label writing and text Identify letters, symbols, words in writing sample
Cluster, group other data Segment objects (e.g., customers, product features) into
categories, clusters
Discover associations Identify that people who watch certain TV shows also read certain
books
Prediction Predict probability of outcomes Predict the probability that a customer will choose another provider
Generation Generate visual objects Trained on a set of artists paintings, generate a new painting in the
same style
Generate writing and text Trained on a historical text, fill in missing parts of a single page
Generate other data Trained on certain countries weather data, fill in missing data
points for countries with low data quality
REPEATS in report
We plotted the top 120 use cases in ExhibitE6. The y-axis shows the volume of available
data (encompassing its breadth and frequency), while the x-axis shows the potential impact,
based on surveys of more than 600 industry experts. The size of the bubble reflects the
diversity of the available data sources.
Exhibit E6
Machine learning has broad potential across industries and use cases
1.5
0.5
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9
Impact score
The use cases in the top right quadrant fall into four main categories. First is the radical
personalization of products and services for customers in sectors such as consumer
packaged goods, finance and insurance, health care, and mediaan opportunity that
most companies have yet to fully exploit. The second is predictive analytics. This includes
examples such as triaging customer service calls; segmenting customers based on
risk, churn, and purchasing patterns; identifying fraud and anomalies in banking and
cybersecurity; and diagnosing diseases from scans, biopsies, and other data. The third
category is strategic optimization, which includes uses such as merchandising and shelf
optimization in retail, scheduling and assigning frontline workers, and optimizing teams
and other resources across geographies and accounts. The fourth category is optimizing
operations and logistics in real time, which includes automating plants and machinery to
reduce errors and improve efficiency, and optimizing supply chain management.
$3T
MGIs previous research on automation found that 45percent of all work activities,
associated with $14.6trillion of wages globally, have the potential to be automated
by adapting currently demonstrated technology. Some 80percent of that could be
wages potentially
implemented by using existing machine learning capabilities. But deep learning is in its early
affected if machine
stages. Improvements in its capabilities, particularly in natural language understanding,
learning gains
suggest the potential for an even greater degree of automation. In 16percent of work
better capabilities activities that require the use of language, for example, increasing the performance of
in natural language machine learning in natural language understanding is the only barrier to automation.
understanding Improving natural language capabilities alone could lead to an additional $3trillion in
potential global wage impact.
These detailed work activities are defined by O*NET, a data collection program sponsored by the US
10
Department of Labor. See Michael Chui, James Manyika, and Mehdi Miremadi, Four fundamentals of
workplace automation, McKinsey Quarterly, November 2015.
Improvements in natural learning understanding and generation as well as social sensing would have the biggest
impact on expanding the number of work activities that deep learning could technically automate
Natural language
76 16 53
understanding
Sensory perception 59 1 5
Generating novel
20 4 25
patterns/categories
Social and
25 41
emotional sensing
Recognizing known
99
patterns/categories
Optimization
33
and planning
Natural language
79 2
generation
While machine learning in general and deep learning in particular have exciting and wide-
ranging potential, there are real concerns associated with their development and potential
deployment. Some of these, such as privacy, data security, and data ownership, were
present even before the big data age. But today new questions have formed.
Improvements in deep learning (DL) could affect billions of dollars in wages in ten occupations globally
Global
Most frequently Global wages that
% of time spent on activities performed group of employ- Hourly DL could
that could be automated if DL DWAs that could be ment wage automate
Occupations improves (by DWA group)1 automated if DL improves Million $ $ billion
Secretaries and
Interacting with computers
administrative 28 to enter data, process 48.2 3.90 109.8
assistants, except legal,
information, etc.
medical, and executive
Monitoring processes,
Managers, all other 27 8.3 18.25 86.7
materials, or surroundings
First-line supervisors of
Interpreting the meaning of
office and administrative 35 12.8 8.75 81.5
information for others
support workers
Performing administrative
Cashiers 18 68.1 3.18 81.5
activities
First-line supervisors of
Organizing, planning, and
helpers, laborers, and 24 8.5 12.73 54.2
prioritizing work
material movers
SOURCE: National labor and statistical sources; McKinsey Global Institute analysis
Second, there are ethical questions surrounding machine intelligence. One set of ethical
concerns relates to real-world biases that might be embedded into training data. Another
question involves deciding whose ethical guidelines will be encoded in the decision making
of intelligence and who is responsible for the algorithms conclusions. Leading artificial
intelligence experts, through OpenAI, the Foundation for Responsible Robotics, and other
efforts, have begun tackling these questions.
Third, the potential risks of labor disruption from the use of deep learning to automate
activities are generating anxiety. There is historical precedent for major shifts among sectors
and changes in the nature of jobs in previous waves of automation. In the United States,
the share of farm employment fell from 40percent in 1900 to 2percent in 2000; similarly,
the share of manufacturing employment fell from roughly 25percent in 1950 to less than
10percent in 2010. In both circumstances, while some jobs disappeared, new ones were
created, although what those new jobs would be could not be ascertained at the time. But
history does not necessarily provide assurance that sufficient numbers of new, quality jobs
will be created at the right pace. At the same time, many countries have or will soon have
labor forces that are declining in size, requiring an acceleration of productivity to maintain
anticipated rates of economic growth. But automation technologies will not be widely
adopted overnight; in fact, a forthcoming MGI research report will explore the potential
pace of automation of different activities in different economies. Certainly dealing with job
displacement, retraining, and unemployment will require a complex interplay of government,
private sector, and educational and training institutions, and it will be a significant debate
and an ongoing challenge across society.
Data and analytics have even greater potential to create value today than they did when
companies first began using them. Organizations that are able to harness these capabilities
effectively will be able to create significant value and differentiate themselves, while others
will find themselves increasingly at a disadvantage.
Big Data: The next frontier for innovation, Disruptive technologies: Advances that
competition, and productivity (May 2011) will transform life, business, and the global
Big data will become a key basis of economy (May 2013)
competition, underpinning new waves of Twelve emerging technologiesincluding
productivity growth, innovation, and consumer the mobile Internet, autonomous vehicles,
surplusas long as the right policies and and advanced genomicshave the potential
enablers are in place. to truly reshape the world in which we live
and work. Leaders in both government and
business must not only know whats on the
horizon but also start preparing for its impact.
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Cover image: Nadla/Getty Images.
McKinsey Global Institute
December 2016
Copyright McKinsey & Company
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