As AI Anxiety Grips Top MBA Campuses, the ‘McKinsey, BCG, Bain’ Dream Flickers

On Day Zero at IIM Ahmedabad earlier this year, Riya (name changed on request), a final-year student, waited nervously in her grey blazer. Consulting firms had once again claimed the earliest slots, and while the odds were in her favour nearly 40% of IIM Calcutta’s batch and 42% at IIM Bangalore had landed consulting jobs in 2024, she knew the stakes were too high to take anything for granted

With average packages ranging from ₹30 to ₹35 lakh at the IIMs and ISB’s top offers crossing ₹1 crore, the dream was alive. Yet, in hushed conversations outside the interview rooms, students spoke of something new, how much of that dream was now at risk in an AI world.

“Consulting is still the best launchpad for me,” Riya said before her interview. “But everyone’s talking about AI now, whether it will cut jobs or make us more valuable. That uncertainty is always at the back of my mind.”

For decades, consulting giants McKinsey, BCG and Bain have represented the ultimate aspiration for students at India’s top MBA campuses, especially the IIMs. Landing an offer from one of the three was seen as the golden ticket prestige, global exposure and a fast track to leadership. But that sheen is starting to dull. With the rise of artificial intelligence tools capable of handling much of the data-heavy analysis that once justified top-dollar fees, many students are wondering if the consulting dream still holds.

At IIM Trichy, nearly 60 students graduated last year without an offer, a reminder that the “IIM tag” alone no longer guarantees a consulting role. “The competition has intensified,” said Arvind Sinha, Professor at IIM Bangalore. “Tier-1 schools remain resilient, but Tier-2 students now have to differentiate with skills, not just pedigree.”

The new normal

“Hiring is still happening, but firms are choosier,” said Neha Gupta, a senior recruiter at Accenture Strategy. “Earlier, we wanted strong problem solvers and communicators. Now, we also look for digital literacy students who can use AI tools or at least show curiosity to learn. That’s the new baseline.”

Not all recruiters speak in such measured tones. A partner at a top-tier global consulting firm, requesting anonymity, put it bluntly: “We don’t need as many fresh MBAs anymore. AI has automated 60-70% of the Excel and PowerPoint grunt work analysts used to cut their teeth on. This year, we cut our incoming analyst class size by almost a third in India. We would rather pay a premium for fewer people who can handle client ambiguity than hire in bulk for tasks a bot can do.”

For students, this shift has meant new anxieties. Sriram, a final-year student at IIM Calcutta, said his peers are spending as much time on data electives as on case prep. “Amid AI anxiety, we’re investing heavily in electives on analytics, data-modelling workshops, even certifications outside campus,” he said. “It’s not enough to crack a case anymore; you must show you can lead an AI-enabled engagement.”

To be sure, the going still remains good for consulting aspirants at top institutes. IIM Calcutta reported an average package of ₹35 lakh, with top consulting offers touching ₹1.15 crore. ISB Hyderabad saw half its batch enter consulting and tech, with 80% of students bagging packages above ₹35 lakh.

“The consulting industry isn’t vanishing,” said Professor Shalini Gupta, who teaches strategy at ISB. “It’s being augmented. The consultant of tomorrow must be bilingual, fluent in frameworks as well as algorithms.”

Inside consulting firms, that reality is playing out fast. McKinsey has embedded over 12,000 AI agents into its workflow, reducing repetitive tasks for analysts. Globally, 40% of McKinsey’s revenues are now linked to AI-related services, and one in four engagements is outcome-based rather than billed per hour. Deloitte and Accenture, too, are investing in generative AI platforms, prompting questions about whether firms will need fewer MBAs at the entry level.

Narratives and numbers

Placement committees are already adapting. Workshops on prompt engineering and data storytelling now feature alongside the traditional case interview bootcamps. Recruiters have even begun experimenting with AI-augmented case interviews, where candidates are asked to critique datasets generated by machine models. “We had a few firms test this format last year,” confirmed Professor Arvind Sinha of IIM Bangalore. “It’s no longer hypothetical.”

Beyond the big firms, boutique AI-native consultancies are entering the placement mix. Smaller firms specialising in analytics-driven strategy or digital transformation are hiring aggressively, often offering lower starting pay but promising faster learning. “The appetite for consulting hasn’t dropped, but the definition of a consulting firm is broadening,” noted Professor Gupta.

For alumni already in the field, AI has meant less number crunching and more storytelling. “When I joined McKinsey two years ago, I spent nights cleaning Excel sheets,” said Vikrant, an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus now based in Gurgaon. “Now, that work gets done in minutes by AI assistants. But clients still want us in the room to translate outputs into decisions, to ask the right questions, and to manage politics. That hasn’t changed.”

Yet the shift is not universally welcome. Mrudul Reddy, an ISB graduate who quit consulting last year to join a startup, felt the entry-level experience had become hollow. “When I joined, I imagined late nights with Excel and client decks as a rite of passage,” he said. “But AI took away a lot of that grunt work, which ironically was where you learned the most. Suddenly, you were expected to jump into high-level thinking without the grounding. I felt I was skipping steps, and that made me uncomfortable. Consulting looked glamorous, but the apprenticeship model was broken.”

For Riya and her peers, the appeal remains undeniable. Consulting still promises a launchpad few other jobs can match. As Rahul Gowda, an ISB graduate now working at Bain’s Mumbai office, put it: “When I was preparing, I knew this was where I wanted to be. But the brand and exposure of consulting outweighed the risk. And once inside, you realise AI is a tool; what matters is how you use it for clients.”