December 17, 2025Ten years ago, QuantumBlack (QB) joined McKinsey as a 45-person start-up in London’s Shoreditch. “At the time of the acquisition, we had just 11 data scientists and a few data engineers,” recalls Alex Singla, senior partner and global QB coleader. “We were just starting to figure out what it means to deliver machine-learning projects.”

What began as a small team experimenting with advanced analytics has since grown into McKinsey’s center of excellence for AI, gen AI, and agentic AI—an organization that blends data science, engineering, product development, design, talent, and AI strategy at a global scale. Now spanning more than 40 offices and supporting hundreds of client deployments each year, QB has become a key driver of how McKinsey helps organizations capture sustainable value through AI.

Building foundations: The early years

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The early years of QuantumBlack were defined by experimentation, craftsmanship, and a culture of relentless curiosity. Teams took on some of the world’s hardest data problems—from optimizing elite athletic performance to transforming clinical trial operations—establishing QB’s reputation for bringing scientific rigor to real-world complexity.

As the team expanded, so did its ambition. QB’s multidisciplinary approach—pairing hands-on engineering with deep industry insight—laid the foundation for the distinctive way it delivers impact today.

“What started as a handful of high-impact projects has evolved into a platform for enterprise transformation across sectors. QuantumBlack’s increasing scale means we’re now shaping how whole industries harness data and AI—not just individual clients,” says Lieven Van der Veken, senior partner and global coleader of QB.

Open-source breakthroughs and the rise of QuantumBlack Labs

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To accelerate innovation further, QB launched QuantumBlack Labs, an R&D and product hub where more than 200 specialists develop advanced tooling, domain-specific assets, and next-generation AI capabilities. In recent years, Labs has led McKinsey’s work in AI agents—designing domain-specific, autonomous systems that can reason, decide, and act on behalf of users. These agents now support clients in areas such as supply chain optimization, software development, customer service, and financial operations.

The magic of QuantumBlack is the combination of rigorous science and real software craftsmanship

Tomás Lajous

Labs has also driven innovation in agentic infrastructure, including ARK (Agentic Runtime Kubernetes), which provides orchestration for large-scale agent deployments and complex reasoning workflows. We even helped the Emirates Team New Zealand defend its America’s Cup title with an AI-powered sailor bot.

This engineering-first mindset has made QB a vibrant talent engine as well, much in the way McKinsey has acted as a leadership factory. Over the years, QuantumBlack has elevated colleagues who are now shaping the firm and produced alumni who have gone on to found start-ups, lead global data and AI organizations, and hold senior technical roles across industry, academia, and the broader AI ecosystem—reflecting the strength of its culture and the caliber of its people.

Scaling AI globally—and redefining industry impact

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Looking ahead: Transforming itself

This view is shared across the firm.

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