McKinsey Acquires Iguazio, a Leader in AI and ML Tech

January 23, 2023 — McKinsey is excited to welcome Iguazio, a leader in AI and machine learning, to its firm. With the addition of Iguazio’s technology and a team of more than 70 data and AI experts, McKinsey will be able to dramatically accelerate and scale AI deployments, driving further impact for clients.

The Iguazio team. Credit: David Garb.

The pace of change has never been faster. To thrive in today’s competitive market, harnessing the power of AI is essential. According to McKinsey research, more than $490 billion was invested in AI by organizations around the globe from 2012 to 2021. But most business leaders are still struggling to translate these investments into concrete returns. To add to the complexity, only 10 percent of AI projects actually succeed in a real-time business environments.

As a leader in the technology space, QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey has been working with clients for more than a decade to embed AI into real-time decision making to help solve the world’s most challenging problems. But one key question remained unanswered: how do organizations successfully deploy and scale AI to unlock real business value?

“The answer to this is multi-dimensional. It requires getting many elements right simultaneously – data, algorithms, IT architecture, capabilities, change management, and domain expertise,” explains Alexander Sukharevsky, McKinsey senior partner and global co-leader QuantumBlack. “We have been working on a holistic offering that allows us to master all these dimensions in a very intuitive way, and we have road-tested it with various clients across the globe. Our teams have been working on a solution that automates and accelerates AI development, deployment, putting AI applications into production at scale and in real-time in any environment.”

Working with Iguazio, QuantumBlack will be able to immediately provide clients with industry-specific AI solutions that are five times more productive, eight times faster from proof-of-concept to production, and twice as reliable.

“We analyzed more than a 1000 AI companies worldwide and identified Iguazio as the best fit to significantly accelerate our AI offering – from the initial concept to production, in a simplified, scalable and automated manner,” says Ben Ellencweig, McKinsey senior partner and QuantumBlack global leader of alliances and acquisitions. “Iguazio has a state-of-the-art technology that has generated significant market traction with some of our marquee clients and earned them top-industry recognition. Strengthening our offering with Iguazio will allow us to present to the market the first holistic solution globally that helps any organization truly harness the full potential of AI.”

Over time, the Iguazio and QuantumBlack teams will be fully integrated, working from a single product roadmap, to bring together the best technology assets of each firm into a single product. McKinsey’s new offering will allow us to integrate AI in real-time decision making and capture full value to help clients drive sustainable and inclusive growth.

“This acquisition will enable us to implement AI with fewer resources at significantly lower cost,” says Alex Singla, McKinsey senior partner and QuantumBlack global co-leader. “This is especially meaningful for companies experiencing a critical shortage of tech talent, one of the reasons many AI projects have been delayed.”

This is McKinsey’s first acquisition in Israel. The newly extended team will serve as the foundation for a new QuantumBlack location, which McKinsey expects to expand and grow in the coming years. “Attracting exceptional tech talent and expanding our tech ecosystem will enable us to welcome colleagues from around the globe to Tel Aviv’s exciting tech scene,” says Matt Fitzpatrick, McKinsey senior partner and QuantumBlack Labs global co-leader.

Iguazio’s four co-founders – CEO Asaf Somekh, along with CTO Yaron Haviv, COO Yaron Segev, and VP Architecture Orit Nissan-Messing – have been working together since 2001, both in their own startups and across multiple organizations, and have developed some of the core technologies of enterprise analytics.

They have seen firsthand, and know how to overcome, the organizational challenges of using AI. “From a values perspective, we are always thinking first about ‘what is best for our client?’ And we have cultivated an entrepreneurial mindset, creating solutions for our clients that can be individualized to different industries, infrastructures, delivery systems,” says Asaf. “These values are very much in sync with what McKinsey is about.”

For Iguazio colleagues, joining McKinsey offers the chance to deliver greater value to more enterprise clients around the world. “We have spent years developing and refining our technology. This is an opportunity for wider recognition, learning and skills development, and deepening our pride of ownership,” says Orit.

Last month, Forrester designated McKinsey a “leader” among AI service providers. “McKinsey’s acquisition of Iguazio and its transformative technology is a testament to its commitment to help enterprises solve the world’s most challenging problems through AI,” says Yaron Segev.

“The next phase of AI innovation is among us,” says Alex Sukharevsky. “And we’re proud to be leading this journey.”

Source: McKinsey