McKinsey, PwC, EY cut EA roles as AI takes over
Key insights
- PwC US has already eliminated roughly 600 executive assistant positions, with McKinsey targeting 10% non-client headcount cuts over 18-24 months.
- AI tools handling diary management, expense processing, and travel booking are directly replacing roles that paid over $100,000 annually.
- KPMG is offshoring rather than eliminating these roles, showing firms are taking different tactical paths toward the same structural outcome.
Why this matters
These cuts at the Big Four and McKinsey function as a leading indicator because these firms both adopt AI aggressively and advise every other large enterprise on workforce strategy, meaning the playbook will spread fast. The $100K salary threshold matters: AI displacement is no longer confined to low-wage or low-skill roles, and the professional-services sector eliminating support staff signals that white-collar adjacency to decision-makers provides no protection. For AI founders, this is a proof-of-deployment milestone showing that agentic AI handling multi-step administrative workflows has crossed the bar for enterprise-scale rollout at risk-averse, compliance-heavy organizations.
Summary
McKinsey, PwC, and EY are eliminating thousands of executive assistant roles as AI tools take over the scheduling, expense, and travel work that once justified six-figure salaries at the world's top consulting firms.
PwC's US arm has already cut roughly 600 EAs. McKinsey is targeting a 10% reduction in non-client-facing headcount over the next 18 to 24 months. KPMG is offshoring equivalent roles rather than eliminating them outright, but the direction is the same: AI absorbs the function, humans lose the job.
Essentially: (McKinsey, PwC, EY, KPMG) are using AI to eliminate the last stable tier of well-paid, credential-light white-collar support work.
- PwC US has cut ~600 EA positions already, with more reductions likely across global offices.
- McKinsey's 10% non-client headcount target spans 18 to 24 months, signaling a deliberate structural shift rather than a one-time cost cut.
- Roles paying over $100K annually and requiring no elite credentials are now the primary target, not entry-level or offshore work.
This isn't AI displacing factory workers or gig drivers; it's displacing credentialed urban professionals at the firms that advise governments and corporations on how to manage their own workforces.
Potential risks and opportunities
Risks
- McKinsey and PwC face reputational risk advising corporate clients on responsible AI adoption while simultaneously executing large-scale AI-driven layoffs of support staff, which could surface in client and regulatory conversations through late 2026.
- If the AI tools absorbing EA functions produce errors in scheduling, compliance filings, or travel logistics, liability for downstream failures falls on the firms with no human buffer to catch mistakes, creating audit and malpractice exposure.
- Offshoring by KPMG and others may face regulatory headwinds in the EU and UK under AI Act and worker-protection frameworks, potentially forcing reversal or restructuring of these workforce decisions within 12 to 18 months.
Opportunities
- Agentic AI workflow vendors targeting enterprise administrative automation (Glean, Notion AI, Microsoft Copilot) can use these deployments as named reference customers to accelerate sales cycles at other professional-services and financial firms.
- Outplacement and reskilling platforms (Coursera for Business, Guild Education) have a direct opening to pitch EA-to-AI-operations retraining programs to the HR arms of the firms executing these cuts.
- Legal and compliance technology vendors can position around the gap left by reduced human oversight in expense processing and travel booking, offering audit trail and error-detection layers that the AI tools currently lack.
What we don't know yet
- Which specific AI platforms (internal builds vs. third-party tools like Microsoft Copilot or Glean) are being credited for absorbing EA workloads at each firm, and whether any vendor has disclosed contract values.
- Whether McKinsey's 10% non-client headcount target includes roles beyond executive assistants, such as research support, knowledge management, or back-office operations.
- How affected EAs' severance and transition terms compare across firms, and whether any labor or regulatory scrutiny has been triggered in EU jurisdictions with stronger workforce protections.
Originally reported by bloomberg.com
Read the original article →Original headline: McKinsey, PwC and EY Lay Off Executive Assistants as AI Accelerates — $100K+ Roles Now in the Crosshairs