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Table of contents

Consulting firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG are notoriously secretive about both their clients and their slide decks.

Even so, there are a few publicly available McKinsey slides floating around the internet that can be fun to look at and get inspired by. For your convenience, we’ve rounded them up here and divided them into categories, along with short summaries of each deck.

But be warned: Many of the decks are older and for external purposes like presentations for industry conferences or extracts of McKinsey Global Institute reports. 

You can find similar lists of presentations for Bain here and BCG here .

If you want to see some recent real-life consulting slides used with corporate clients, go to our templates to get specific full-length case examples related to each topic.

Full list of available presentations:

Client projects:

• McKinsey - Helping Global Health Partnerships to increase their impact: Stop TB Partnership (2009)
• McKinsey - USPS Future Business Model (2010)
• McKinsey - Capturing the full electricity efficiency potential of the U.K. (2012)
• McKinsey - Modelling the potential of digitally-enabled processes, transparency and participation in the NHS (2014)
• McKinsey - Refueling the innovation engine in vaccines (2016)
• McKinsey - Lebanon Economic Vision - Full Report (2018)

Industry reports/market overviews:

• McKinsey - The changed agenda in the global sourcing industry: perspectives and developments (2009)
• McKinsey - What Makes Private Sector Partnership Works: some learnings from the field (2011)
• McKinsey - The Internet of Things and Big Data: Opportunities for Value Creation (2013)
• McKinsey - Laying the foundations for a financially sound industry (2013)
• McKinsey - Manufacturing the Future: The Next Era of Global Growth and Innovation (2013)
• McKinsey - Insurance trends and growth opportunities for Poland (2015)
• McKinsey - Challenges in Mining: Scarcity or Opportunity? (2015)
• McKinsey - Restoring Economic Health to the North Sea (2015)
• McKinsey - How will Internet of Things, mobile internet, data analytics and cloud transform public services by 2030? (2015)
• McKinsey - Overview of M&A, 2016 (2016)
• McKinsey - Five keys to unlocking growth in marketing’s “new golden age” (2017)
• McKinsey - Using Artificial Intelligence to prevent healthcare errors from occurring (2017)
• McKinsey - Digital Luxury Experience (2017)
• McKinsey - Technology’s role in mineral criticality (2017)
• McKinsey - The future energy landscape: Global trends and a closer look at the Netherlands (2017)
• McKinsey - European Banking Summit 2018 (2018)
• McKinsey - Current perspectives on Medical Affairs in Japan (2018)
• McKinsey - Investment and Industrial Policy: A Perspective on the Future (2018)
• McKinsey - Moving Laggards to Early Adopters (Maybe even innovators) (2018)
• McKinsey - Digital and Innovation Strategies for the Infrastructure Industry (2018)
• McKinsey - The Future of the Finance Function –Experiences from the U.S. public sector (2019)
• McKinsey - New horizons in transportation: mobility, innovation, economic development and funding implications (2020)
• McKinsey - Accelerating hybrid cloud adoption in banking and securities (2020)
• McKinsey - COVID-19 - Auto & Mobility Consumer Insights (2020)
• McKinsey - Race in the workplace: The Black experience in the U.S. private sector (2021)
• McKinsey - The top trends in tech - executive summary download (2021)
• McKinsey - Women in the Workplace (2022)
• McKinsey - Global Hydrogen Flows: Hydrogen trade as a key enabler for efficient decarbonization (2022)
• McKinsey - McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2022 (2022)
• McKinsey - Global Economics Intelligence; Global Summary Report (2023)
• McKinsey - Fab automation - Artificial Intelligence (date unknown)

McKinsey Global Institute reports (McKinsey’s business and economics research arm):

• McKinsey - Context for Global Growth and Development (2014)
• McKinsey - Perspectives on manufacturing, disruptive technologies, and Industry 4.0 (2014)
• McKinsey - From poverty to empowerment: India’s imperative for jobs, growth and effective basic services (2014)
• McKinsey - Attracting Responsible Mining Investment in Fragile and Conflict Affected Settings (2014)
• McKinsey - A blueprint for addressing the global affordable housing challenge (2015)
• McKinsey - Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation (2017)
• McKinsey - Reinventing Construction: A Route To Higher Productivity (2017)
• McKinsey - Outperformers: High-growth emerging economies and the companies that propel them (2018)

Miscellaneous projects:

• McKinsey - How companies can capture the veteran opportunity (2012)
• McKinsey - The Five Frames – A Guide to Transformational Change (date unknown)

Helping Global Health Partnerships to increase their impact: McKinsey (2009)

54 page pre-read deck for a board meeting during a longer project. Describes project overview, key findings from current phase, as well as next steps. Detailed and systematic walk-through. Good inspiration for : How to divide a project into relevant phases. Presenting detailed findings for different areas and summarizing these in suggested next steps for each area.

Download the presentation here.

USPS Future Business Model (2010)

39 page deck describing the recent context and base case going forward for USPS, as well as potential change levers and what is required to change course short term. Good inspiration for: Structuring a coherent strategy document with a clear storyline.

Capturing the full electricity efficiency potential of the U.K. (2012)

61 page main deck + 68 page appendix covering a full analysis and recommendations for becoming more energy efficient. Appears to have been prepared for the UK government. Excellent deck with many good slide designs and the full end-to-end storyline from baseline calculation to potential efficiency measures to barriers to prioritization and recommendations of measures to take. Good inspiration for : Creating a full report of a project analysis and recommendations based on that analysis. Presenting data in clear slides. Presenting and analyzing potential measures systematically.

Modelling the potential of digitally-enabled processes, transparency and participation in the NHS (2014)

3 page deck + 13 page appendix describing the context, methodology, and outcome of a quantitative model to analyze the net benefits of various technology interventions for the NHS. Also includes an analysis of the net opportunities against the ease of implementation, and ends with a recommendation of the four most impactful actions to take. Good inspiration for: Structuring and explaining a quantitative model including drivers and expected impact.

Refueling the innovation engine in vaccines (2016)

40 page discussion document for NVAC as part of a longer project. The deck goes over the state of the industry, challenges to innovation and potential solutions, as well as what role NVAC can play. Good inspiration for: Creating a clear and structured storyline that balances data-heavy slides with verbal/abstract slides.

Industry reports & market overviews:

The changed agenda in the global sourcing industry: perspectives and developments (2009) 35 page dense deck presented at a Global ICT services sourcing conference. Covers the development of the onshore-offshore industry, what it is expected to look like going forward, and the imperatives for management to successfully navigate the future. Good inspiration for: Creating a complete and comprehensive market picture, as well as framing recommendations.

​​What Makes Private Sector Partnership Works: some learnings from the field (2011) 12 page deck describing public-private partnerships around agriculture in Africa. The deck identifies where in the value chain there could be partnership possibilities, as well as examples of successful partnerships and what is needed to succeed. Good inspiration for: Presenting a value chain. Visually representing different partnership models (or other types of models).

The Internet of Things and Big Data: Opportunities for Value Creation (2013) 18 page picture-heavy deck used in an oral presentation around the topic of IoT and big data. The deck first describes IoT’s growth in recent years before moving into how IoT works on a high level and what the possibilities and challenges are.

Good inspiration for: Using quotes to enhance a storyline.

Laying the foundations for a financially sound industry (2013) 17 page deck going over the current financial situation of the global steel industry before briefly touching on the outlook and then discussing possible measures to become more financially stable. Contains a fairly detailed and interesting EBITDA model with different drivers of EBITDA laid out. Presented at a Steel Committee meeting. Good inspiration for: Creating clear graph slides. Visually representing a quantitative model.

Manufacturing the Future: The Next Era of Global Growth and Innovation (2013) 38 page deck covering the current state of US manufacturing and five disruptive trends that are reshaping the industry. Good inspiration for: Summarizing trends and relating them to a specific value chain. Many good graphs and ways of presenting data (both quantitative and qualitative) visually.

Insurance trends and growth opportunities for Poland (2015) 25 page deck covering the status of the Polish insurance market and five main trends shaping the market, as well as a case of a different market and how that has changed. Presented in connection with the Polish Insurance Association. Good inspiration for: Systematically presenting various trends and their expected impact without becoming too monotonous visually.

Challenges in Mining: Scarcity or Opportunity? (2015) 10 page main deck + 30 page appendix describing the current status of mining and how the value chain will potentially change due to new innovations. Presented during World Materials Forum. Good inspiration for: Presenting a value chain in different ways, as well as which areas of the value chain will change/can be innovated.

Restoring Economic Health to the North Sea (2015) 28 page deck used for an oral presentation about the cost increases in the UK oil industry and potential ways to mitigate these. Good inspiration for: Creating a simple and clear storyline with a strong narrative arc that works well for a live presentation.

How will Internet of Things, mobile internet, data analytics and cloud transform public services by 2030? (2015) 15 page fairly high-level deck describing IoT and other digital trends and how they will potentially impact various industries and current ways of doing things. Good inspiration for: Presenting a trend and following with a good example/case study.

Five keys to unlocking growth in marketing’s “new golden age” (2017) 26 page deck going over five main levers to pull in marketing; science, substance, story, speed, and simplicity. Describes each lever in a few slides using mainly images, icons, and other graphics. Good inspiration for: Creating light, image-based slides that still tell a story and get the message across.

Using Artificial Intelligence to prevent healthcare errors from occurring (2017) 25 page dense deck describing how AI/ML (machine learning) is changing industries, the possible use cases in healthcare, and what barriers exists/which key things need to be in place to enable an advanced analytics implementation. Good inspiration for: Showing quantitative potentials for different use cases/levers and summarizing these in a visually clear way. Creating one-pagers on specific use cases.

Digital Luxury Experience 2017 (2017) 24-page support deck for an oral presentation going over three areas of change for the luxury industry, hosted by a luxury goods umbrella organization. Good inspiration for: Using simple graphs and numbers to illustrate a point.

Technology’s role in mineral criticality (2017) 28 page deck first describing some overall technology trends and how they may impact the minerals industry including potential opportunities. Then going into productivity issues in mining and potential fixes, as well as a deep dive into two commodities. Presented at the World Materials Forum. Good inspiration for: Presenting complex data on relatively simple slides and making the message visually clear.

The future energy landscape: Global trends and a closer look at the Netherlands (2017) 38 page graph-heavy deck describing the current energy landscape and three major trends expected to impact it going forward, as well as how it specifically applies to the Netherlands. Presentation to the Dutch financial sector. Good inspiration for: Different ways of presenting numbers and graphs in clear, compelling visuals.

European Banking Summit 2018 (2018) 10-page deck going over the status of European capital markets, particularly concerning the US. Mainly focused on current numbers, not a lot on the path forward. Good inspiration for: Making classic consulting-style graph slides.

Current perspectives on Medical Affairs in Japan (2018) 20 page deck covering the current status and trends impacting Medical Affairs in Japan, as well as four priorities for leadership going forward. Good inspiration for: Creating divider slides that also function as executive summaries.

Investment and Industrial Policy: A Perspective on the Future (2018) 16-page main deck + 7-page appendix describing the rise of globalization, its impact on economic growth, and recommendations for policy-makers. Fairly high-level, although with some good data slides. Presented as part of a panel discussion at the UNCTAD Trade And Development Board. Good inspiration for: Creating visually clear data-heavy slides. Condensing a potentially long storyline into a few key slides.

Moving Laggards to Early Adopters (Maybe even innovators) (2018) 18 page word-heavy deck used in an oral presentation on the topic of digitalization in manufacturing. Covers the challenges of digital manufacturing, then goes over survey output from the industry, before ending with three recommendations for businesses. Good inspiration for: Presenting verbal findings and recommendations in simple slides with icons.

The Future of the Finance Function –Experiences from the U.S. public sector (2019) 14 page deck used in an oral presentation for a government finance function conference. The deck goes over what challenges CFOs etc. face in the current environment and five ways to move from transaction to value management going forward. Good inspiration for: Presenting different levels of maturity of a given function and supporting this with data.

Fab automation - Artificial Intelligence (date unknown) 17 page deck discussing the potential for AI in the semiconductor industry by first describing what AI is, then how it applies to fab, and finally what is required to unlock that potential. Good inspiration for: Creating different types of slide designs that balance text and numbers to avoid a monotonous or boring storyline.

McKinsey Global Institute reports:

Context for Global Growth and Development (2014) Sub-title: Extracts from McKinsey Global Institute research for UN Session on “Financing for global sustainable development”. 11-page deck focusing mainly on key findings from a longer research report put out by McKinsey Global Institute. Good inspiration for: Creating different slide designs for graphs and numbers.

Perspectives on manufacturing, disruptive technologies, and Industry 4.0 (2014) 17-page slightly ad hoc deck with extracts of a longer report put out by the McKinsey Global Institute on manufacturing. Goes over why manufacturing is important, how the boundaries of industry and services are blurring, how digital manufacturing is growing, and finally where governments can support from a policy perspective. Good inspiration for: Different slide designs and presenting data in a visually appealing and clear way.

From poverty to empowerment: India’s imperative for jobs, growth and effective basic services (2014) 13-page deck + 8-page appendix going over India’s poverty issues and potential change levers. Extract of a longer report put out by the McKinsey Global Institute. Good inspiration for: Creating clear and compelling quantitative slides in different formats.

Attracting Responsible Mining Investment in Fragile and Conflict Affected Settings (2014) 8 page deck describing the development of resource-driven countries and six dimensions for governments to focus on to realize the full potential going forward. Extract from a longer report put out by the McKinsey Global Institute. Good inspiration for: Creating a short and to-the-point storyline following the SCQA framework (situation-complication-question-answer), although the “Q” is implied.

A blueprint for addressing the global affordable housing challenge (2015) 49 page deck going into first what the affordable housing challenge looks like in numbers, followed by levers to narrow the affordability gap. The deck is a summation of a longer report put out by the McKinsey Global Institute. Good inspiration for: Illustrating change levers and their quantitative impact, both collectively and separately.

Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation (2017) 16-page deck going over how automation and computers have historically affected jobs, and what potential impact it will have in the future. Summary of a longer report put out by the McKinsey Global Institute. Good inspiration for: Creating data-heavy slides. Keeping the storyline simple and to-the-point.

​​Reinventing Construction: A Route To Higher Productivity (2017) 14-page deck describing the current state of construction, in particular productivity, before briefly going over seven potential improvement areas and how government intervention might help. Very high-level deck summarizing a longer report by the McKinsey Global Institute. Good inspiration for: Using an agenda or divider slide actively to both summarize and outline the storyline.

Outperformers: High-growth emerging economies and the companies that propel them (2018) 16-page deck describing the main highlights of a research report by McKinsey Global Institute on high-growth emerging economies. The deck first goes over the data on how these economies are performing, followed by the proposed reasons why, and the outlook going forward. Good inspiration for: Creating different graph-heavy slide designs.

How companies can capture the veteran opportunity (2012)

34-page main deck + 12 page appendix going into how employers can leverage veteran talent. The document is divided into three main sections; 1) what is the business case for hiring veterans, 2) what are the best practices are for finding, hiring, onboarding, and retaining veterans, 3) what resources are available to assist employers’ veteran recruiting efforts. Good inspiration for: Systematically presenting an opportunity and how to best leverage that opportunity. Creating slides to show processes and decision trees.

The Five Frames – A Guide to Transformational Change (date unknown)

33-page deck discussing organizational “health” and diving into a five-step approach to transformation. The deck is structured as a kind of simple playbook to use when undertaking e.g. a digital transformation. Good inspiration for: Directly applicable high-level playbook when embarking on a small or large transformation. Structuring a process.

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How can we help you?

Consumers care about sustainability—and back it up with their wallets.

• A joint study from McKinsey & Company and NIQ examines sales growth for products that claim to be environmentally and socially responsible.
• Join us as NIQ’s wellness experts share the how, where and which sustainability insights CPG brands are using to answer business questions.

Consumers are shifting their spending toward products with ESG-related claims

CPG companies increasingly allocate time, attention, and resources to instill environmental and social responsibility into their business practices. They are also making claims about environmental and social responsibility on their product labels. The results have been evident: walk down the aisle of any grocery or drugstore these days and you’re bound to see products labeled “environmentally sustainable,” “eco-friendly,” “fair trade,” or other designations related to aspects of environmental and social responsibility.

Most important is what lies behind these product claims—the actual contribution of such business practices to achieving goals such as reducing carbon emissions across value chains, offering fair wages and working practices to employees, and supporting diversity and inclusion. But understanding how customers respond to social and environmental claims is also important and has not been clear in the past.

Download the full report to learn more

How to turn green consumer intentions into sustainable actions

As pragmatism meets the realities of today’s world, a central question emerges: How can CPG and retail leaders bridge the gap between words and deeds in sustainable consumption?

Our approach: Getting granular with ESG in store aisles

In collaboration with NIQ, McKinsey & Company analyzed five years of US sales data, from 2017 to June 2022. The data covered 600,000 individual product SKUs representing $400 billion in annual retail revenues. These products came from 44,000 brands across 32 food, beverage, personal-care, and household categories.

At the most fundamental level, the analysis examined the rate of sales growth for individual products by category over the five-year period from 2017 to 2022. We compared the different growth rates for products with and without ESG-related claims, while controlling for other factors (such as brand size, price tier, and whether the product was a new or established one). The results provide insights into whether, and by how much, products with ESG-related claims outperform their peers on growth and how different types of products and claims perform relative to each other. This research is limited to assessing how ESG-related claims correlate with purchasing behavior. 1

Do you have questions about activating your sustainability strategies?

• How do I get started for my category?
• Where do I invest my resources? ​
• Which sustainability claims should my brand own? ​
• How do I customize my marketing message to connect with my shoppers? ​ ​

We can help to get the answers.  ​

Six types of ESG claims

We found six types of ESG claims identified on product packages:

Animal welfare (“cage free,” “cruelty free,” “not tested on animals”)

Environmental sustainability (“compostable,” “eco-friendly”)

Organic positioning (an indication of organic certification)

Plant based (“plant based,” “vegan”)

Social responsibility (“fair wage,” “ethical”)

Sustainable packaging (“plastic free,” “biodegradable”)

This study did broadly reveal, in many categories, a clear and material link between ESG-related claims and consumer spending.

1. Although this study examines how the sales growth of products that feature ESG-related claims fared relative to similar products without such claims, it does not demonstrate a causal relationship that definitively indicates whether consumers bought these brands because of the ESG-related claims or for other reasons. NIQ and McKinsey did not attempt to independently assess the veracity of ESG-related claims for these products. It is of course paramount for the development of a sustainable and inclusive economy that companies back any ESG-related claims they make with genuine actions.

Global Sustainability Hub

Keep tabs on NIQ’s expert perspective, latest research, and trend watching for CPG manufacturers and retailers with NIQ’s global sustainability hub.

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The State of Fashion 2023: Resilience in the Face of Uncertainty

• Imran Amed ,

We have released The State of Fashion 2024 by The Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company. Download The State of Fashion 2024 now to explore the 10 themes that will define the industry in the year ahead.

Just as the fashion industry was beginning to find its feet after Covid-19′s turmoil, the later months of 2022 seem determined to throw brands and retailers off course again. Deteriorating macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions have weighed heavily on the industry in the second half of the year and continue to leave fashion executives on edge as they look towards 2023.

However, much of the industry is entering this difficult period with strong foundations, having experienced impressive growth in 2021 and in the first half of 2022. As economies around the world began lifting restrictions in 2021 after enduring the pandemic’s devastation, the fashion industry benefitted from a burst of pent-up consumer demand, despite some challenges remaining, like supply chain disruptions. Global industry revenues in 2021 grew 21 percent year on year, while the average EBITA margin close to doubled, growing 6 percentage points. The industry continued its strong performance in early 2022, with 13 percent revenue growth in the first half of the year.

More than 50 percent of the companies tracked by the McKinsey Global Fashion Index contributed to the industry’s total economic profit in 2021, compared to just 32 percent in 2020. The proportion of value destroyers (companies generating negative economic profit) has thus fallen to its lowest since 2013. Our roster of fashion “Super Winners” — the top 20 listed companies by economic profit — comprises many of the usual suspects from the luxury and sportswear categories, while players in the discount segment have also climbed up the list.

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But some of these gains were chipped away as 2022 progressed. The war in Ukraine, which started in February, triggered a string of events, including an escalating energy crisis across Europe. Troublesome inflation in many major economies led central banks to roll out back-to-back interest rate hikes, ending a lengthy period of ultra-low and even negative rates, in a bid to temper rising prices and help steer economies away from recession.

Looking ahead to 2023, the drivers contributing to a broad state of global fragility are top of mind for fashion executives. In the BoF-McKinsey State of Fashion 2023 Survey, 85 percent of fashion executives predict inflation will continue to challenge the market next year. Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions, specifically around the ongoing war in Ukraine, have disrupted supply chains and created an energy crisis that 58 percent of executives also believe will weaken the fashion market.

In aggregate, McKinsey expects global fashion sales growth of 5 percent to 10 percent for luxury, and negative 2 percent to positive 3 percent for the rest of the industry in 2023, while the dichotomies that previously defined the fashion business are expected to return. Beyond the differences between luxury and players from other segments, regional differences will be pronounced. The US economy, despite the slowdown, is expected to be more robust than other major global economies — Covid-19 outbreaks and precautions continue in China, while Europe suffers from an energy crisis and a weakened euro against a strong US dollar.

Against this backdrop, the world map for industry growth is shifting. Markets that once showed solid growth potential are now facing a wider range of risks than they once did, ranging from extreme weather conditions to political or social unrest. Other regions such as the Middle East may become new havens of growth, requiring brands to further localise designs, marketing and merchandising to attract new customers. But as fashion executives assess what the new regional realities mean for their businesses, their scenario planning will need to factor in more than financial risks and opportunities.

Fashion companies will need to rethink their operations. Many will update their organisational structures, introducing new roles or elevating existing ones to target key growth opportunities and respond more effectively to risk. Brands may also choose to see the next year as a time to team up with manufacturing partners to sharpen their supply chain strategies. This may involve nearshoring to better respond to fast-shifting consumer demand or leaning more heavily on data analytics and technology to manage inventory efficiently.

Distribution channel mixes are also ripe for reassessment. As e-commerce growth normalises after its pandemic boom, the sheen has started to wear off the direct-to-consumer digital model that propelled many brands over the past decade. As lockdown restrictions lifted, shoppers have made it clear that although they still value online channels — particularly within luxury, where online DTC and third-party platforms will continue to drive growth — shoppers also want brick-and-mortar experiences. Brands will also need to factor in the continued return of international travel to pre-pandemic rates, which will be buoyed by a strong US dollar. Wholesale and physical retail have a new role in revamping customer journeys, requiring brands to look beyond tier-one cities to be physically closer to consumers.

Brands will have to work hard to remain attractive to consumers, given the tough economic environment. Consumer behaviours in 2023 will depend greatly on household incomes. While higher-income households will be less affected by economic pressures and look likely to continue shopping for luxury goods, as in previous downturns, lower-income households will likely cut back or even eliminate discretionary spending, including apparel. Some will trade down, pivoting to value retailers, marked-down items and off-price channels while eschewing full price, premium and mass brands.

All this elevates the importance of brands’ marketing strategies. Brands should use the year ahead to innovate their digital marketing. Budgets will shift to alternative channels that could generate better return on investment than paid social media ads, such retail media networks, while building stronger brand communities. This will feed into distribution channels, as brands will need to seek higher margins and gather more first-party customer data.

Executives are bracing for a tough 2023; leading brands will deploy realistic but bold strategies that combine careful cost control with strategic investments in skills growth.

How brands manage and communicate about issues that are important to consumers will also be critical. Consider sustainability. New and emerging regulations along with heightened consumer awareness of fashion’s contribution to the climate crisis mean that brands will need to be hyper-vigilant about how they talk about their sustainability-related initiatives and achievements to ensure they are not “greenwashing,” which could potentially lead to reputational damage or costly fines.

Brands that effectively navigate industry challenges in 2023 will be better positioned to seize consumer trends. Coming out of the pandemic, formal dress codes remain disrupted, pushing brands to rethink office and special occasion attire. Meanwhile, consumers are increasingly shopping across gender categories, and brands that can adapt their merchandising strategies accordingly will be able to strengthen their relationships with a wider range of consumers.

Executives are bracing for a tough 2023; leading brands will deploy realistic but bold strategies that combine careful cost control with strategic investments in skills growth. Those that recognise that growth will be unpredictable or muted, but still charge forward with investments in innovation throughout their organisations, will find they are in a stronger position to accelerate their businesses when the uncertainty and fragility subside.

The 10 fashion industry themes that will set the agenda in 2023:

1. Global Fragility

Amid the highest inflation in a generation, rising geopolitical tensions, climate crises and sinking consumer confidence in anticipation of an economic downturn, the global economy is in a volatile state. Fashion brands will need careful planning to navigate the many uncertainties and recessionary risks that lie ahead in 2023.

2. Regional Realities

Understanding where to invest globally has never been easy but rising geopolitical uncertainty and uneven post-pandemic economic recoveries, among other factors, will likely make it even more challenging in 2023. Brands can re-evaluate regional growth priorities and hone their strategies so they are more tailored to the geographies in which they operate.

3. Two-Track Spending

Consumers may be impacted differently by the potential economic turbulence in 2023. Depending on factors including disposable income levels, some will postpone or curtail discretionary purchases; others will seek out bargains, increasing demand for resale, rental and off-price. Fashion executives should adapt their business models to protect customer loyalty and avoid diluting their brands.

4. Fluid Fashion

Gender-fluid fashion is gaining greater traction amid changing consumer attitudes towards gender identity and expression. For many brands and retailers, the blurring of the lines between menswear and womenswear will require rethinking their product design, marketing, and in-store and digital shopping experiences.

5. Formalwear Reinvented

Formal attire is taking on new definitions as shoppers rethink how they dress for work, weddings and other special occasions. While offices and events will likely become more casual, special occasions may be dominated by statement-making outfits that consumers rent or buy to stand out when they do decide to dress up.

6. DTC Reckoning

Though brands across price segments and categories have embraced digital direct-to-consumer channels, mounting digital marketing costs and e-commerce readjustments have put the viability of the DTC model into question. To grow, brands will likely need to diversify their channel mix, including wholesale and third-party marketplaces, alongside DTC.

7. Tackling Greenwashing

As the industry continues to grapple with its damaging environmental and social impact, consumers, regulators and other stakeholders may increasingly scrutinise how brands communicate about their sustainability credentials. If brands are to avoid “greenwashing,” they must show that they are making meaningful and credible change while abiding by emerging regulatory requirements.

8. Future-Proofing Manufacturing

Continued disruptions in supply chains are a catalyst for a reconfiguration of global production. Textile manufacturers can create new supply chain models based around vertical integration, nearshoring and small-batch production, enabled by enhanced digitisation.

9. Digital Marketing Reloaded

Recent data rules are spurring a new chapter for digital marketing as customer targeting becomes less effective and more costly. Brands will embrace creative campaigns and new channels such as retail media networks and the metaverse to achieve greater ROI on marketing spend and gather valuable first-party data that can be leveraged to deepen customer relationships.

10. Organisation Overhaul

Successful execution of strategies in 2023 will in part hinge on a company’s alignment around key functions. Fashion executives need a new vision for what the organisation of the future will require, focusing on attracting and retaining top talent, as well as elevating teams and critical C-suite roles to execute on priorities like sustainability and digital acceleration.

Imran Amed is the Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Business of Fashion. Based in London, he shapes BoF’s overall editorial strategy and is the host of The BoF Podcast.

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THE AI INDEX REPORT

Measuring trends in AI

ai iNDEX anNUAL rEPORT

Welcome to the 2024 AI Index Report

Welcome to the seventh edition of the AI Index report. The 2024 Index is our most comprehensive to date and arrives at an important moment when AI’s influence on society has never been more pronounced. This year, we have broadened our scope to more extensively cover essential trends such as technical advancements in AI, public perceptions of the technology, and the geopolitical dynamics surrounding its development. Featuring more original data than ever before, this edition introduces new estimates on AI training costs, detailed analyses of the responsible AI landscape, and an entirely new chapter dedicated to AI’s impact on science and medicine. The AI Index report tracks, collates, distills, and visualizes data related to artificial intelligence (AI). Our mission is to provide unbiased, rigorously vetted, broadly sourced data in order for policymakers, researchers, executives, journalists, and the general public to develop a more thorough and nuanced understanding of the complex field of AI.

TOP TAKEAWAYS

1. a i beats humans on some tasks, but not on all..

AI has surpassed human performance on several benchmarks, including some in image classification, visual reasoning, and English understanding. Yet it trails behind on more complex tasks like competition-level mathematics, visual commonsense reasoning and planning.

2. Industry continues to dominate frontier AI research .

 In 2023, industry produced 51 notable machine learning models, while academia contributed only 15. There were also 21 notable models resulting from industry-academia collaborations in 2023, a new high.

3. Frontier models get way more expensive .

According to AI Index estimates, the training costs of state-of-the-art AI models have reached unprecedented levels. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-4 used an estimated $78 million worth of compute to train, while Google’s Gemini Ultra cost $191 million for compute.

• 4. The United States leads China, the EU, and the U.K. as the leading source of top AI models.

 In 2023, 61 notable AI models originated from U.S.-based institutions, far outpacing the European Union’s 21 and China’s 15.

5. Robust and standardized evaluations for LLM responsibility are seriously lacking.

New research from the AI Index reveals a significant lack of standardization in responsible AI reporting. Leading developers, including OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, primarily test their models against different responsible AI benchmarks. This practice complicates efforts to systematically compare the risks and limitations of top AI models.

6. Generative AI investment skyrockets.

Despite a decline in overall AI private investment last year, funding for generative AI surged, nearly octupling from 2022 to reach $25.2 billion. Major players in the generative AI space, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, and Inflection, reported substantial fundraising rounds.

7. The data is in: AI makes workers more productive and leads to higher quality work.

In 2023, several studies assessed AI’s impact on labor, suggesting that AI enables workers to complete tasks more quickly and to improve the quality of their output. These studies also demonstrated AI’s potential to bridge the skill gap between low- and high-skilled workers. Still other studies caution that using AI without proper oversight can lead to diminished performance.

8. Scientific progress accelerates even further, thanks to AI.

In 2022, AI began to advance scientific discovery. 2023, however, saw the launch of even more significant science-related AI applications—from AlphaDev, which makes algorithmic sorting more efficient, to GNoME, which facilitates the process of materials discovery.

9. The number of AI regulations in the United States sharply increases.

The number of AI-related regulations in the U.S. has risen significantly in the past year and over the last five years. In 2023, there were 25 AI-related regulations, up from just one in 2016. Last year alone, the total number of AI-related regulations grew by 56.3%.

10. People across the globe are more cognizant of AI’s potential impact—and more nervous.

A survey from Ipsos shows that, over the last year, the proportion of those who think AI will dramatically affect their lives in the next three to five years has increased from 60% to 66%. Moreover, 52% express nervousness toward AI products and services, marking a 13 percentage point rise from 2022. In America, Pew data suggests that 52% of Americans report feeling more concerned than excited about AI, rising from 38% in 2022.

Chapter 1: Research and Development

This chapter studies trends in AI research and development. It begins by examining trends in AI publications and patents, and then examines trends in notable AI systems and foundation models. It concludes by analyzing AI conference attendance and open-source AI software projects.

• 1. Industry continues to dominate frontier AI research.
• 2. More foundation models and more open foundation models.
• 3. Frontier models get way more expensive.
• 5. The number of AI patents skyrockets.
• 6. China dominates AI patents.
• 7. Open-source AI research explodes.
• 8. The number of AI publications continues to rise.

Chapter 2: Technical Performance

The technical performance section of this year’s AI Index offers a comprehensive overview of AI advancements in 2023. It starts with a high-level overview of AI technical performance, tracing its broad evolution over time. The chapter then examines the current state of a wide range of AI capabilities, including language processing, coding, computer vision (image and video analysis), reasoning, audio processing, autonomous agents, robotics, and reinforcement learning. It also shines a spotlight on notable AI research breakthroughs from the past year, exploring methods for improving LLMs through prompting, optimization, and fine-tuning, and wraps up with an exploration of AI systems’ environmental footprint.

• 1. AI beats humans on some tasks, but not on all.
• 2. Here comes multimodal AI.
• 3. Harder benchmarks emerge.
• 4. Better AI means better data which means … even better AI.
• 5. Human evaluation is in.
• 6. Thanks to LLMs, robots have become more flexible.
• 7. More technical research in agentic AI.
• 8. Closed LLMs significantly outperform open ones.

Chapter 3: Responsible AI

AI is increasingly woven into nearly every facet of our lives. This integration is occurring in sectors such as education, finance, and healthcare, where critical decisions are often based on algorithmic insights. This trend promises to bring many advantages; however, it also introduces potential risks. Consequently, in the past year, there has been a significant focus on the responsible development and deployment of AI systems. The AI community has also become more concerned with assessing the impact of AI systems and mitigating risks for those affected. This chapter explores key trends in responsible AI by examining metrics, research, and benchmarks in four key responsible AI areas: privacy and data governance, transparency and explainability, security and safety, and fairness. Given that 4 billion people are expected to vote globally in 2024, this chapter also features a special section on AI and elections and more broadly explores the potential impact of AI on political processes.

• 1. Robust and standardized evaluations for LLM responsibility are seriously lacking.
• 2. Political deepfakes are easy to generate and difficult to detect.
• 3. Researchers discover more complex vulnerabilities in LLMs.
• 4. Risks from AI are a concern for businesses across the globe.
• 5. LLMs can output copyrighted material.
• 6. AI developers score low on transparency, with consequences for research.
• 7. Extreme AI risks are difficult to analyze.
• 8. The number of AI incidents continues to rise.
• 9. ChatGPT is politically biased.

Chapter 4: Economy

The integration of AI into the economy raises many compelling questions. Some predict that AI will drive productivity improvements, but the extent of its impact remains uncertain. A major concern is the potential for massive labor displacement—to what degree will jobs be automated versus augmented by AI? Companies are already utilizing AI in various ways across industries, but some regions of the world are witnessing greater investment inflows into this transformative technology. Moreover, investor interest appears to be gravitating toward specific AI subfields like natural language processing and data management. This chapter examines AI-related economic trends using data from Lightcast, LinkedIn, Quid, McKinsey, Stack Overflow, and the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). It begins by analyzing AI-related occupations, covering labor demand, hiring trends, skill penetration, and talent availability. The chapter then explores corporate investment in AI, introducing a new section focused specifically on generative AI. It further examines corporate adoption of AI, assessing current usage and how developers adopt these technologies. Finally, it assesses AI’s current and projected economic impact and robot installations across various sectors.

• 1. Generative AI investment skyrockets.
• 2. Already a leader, the United States pulls even further ahead in AI private investment.
• 3. Fewer AI jobs, in the United States and across the globe.
• 4. AI decreases costs and increases revenues.
• 5. Total AI private investment declines again, while the number of newly funded AI companies increases.
• 6. AI organizational adoption ticks up.
• 7. China dominates industrial robotics.
• 8. Greater diversity in robot installations.
• 9. The data is in: AI makes workers more productive and leads to higher quality work.
• 10. Fortune 500 companies start talking a lot about AI, especially generative AI.

Chapter 5: Science and Medicine

This year’s AI Index introduces a new chapter on AI in science and medicine in recognition of AI’s growing role in scientific and medical discovery. It explores 2023’s standout AI-facilitated scientific achievements, including advanced weather forecasting systems like GraphCast and improved material discovery algorithms like GNoME. The chapter also examines medical AI system performance, important 2023 AI-driven medical innovations like SynthSR and ImmunoSEIRA, and trends in the approval of FDA AI-related medical devices.

• 1. Scientific progress accelerates even further, thanks to AI.
• 2. AI helps medicine take significant strides forward.
• 3. Highly knowledgeable medical AI has arrived.
• 4. The FDA approves more and more AI-related medical devices.

Chapter 6: Education

This chapter examines trends in AI and computer science (CS) education, focusing on who is learning, where they are learning, and how these trends have evolved over time. Amid growing concerns about AI’s impact on education, it also investigates the use of new AI tools like ChatGPT by teachers and students. The analysis begins with an overview of the state of postsecondary CS and AI education in the United States and Canada, based on the Computing Research Association’s annual Taulbee Survey. It then reviews data from Informatics Europe regarding CS education in Europe. This year introduces a new section with data from Studyportals on the global count of AI-related English-language study programs.  The chapter wraps up with insights into K–12 CS education in the United States from Code.org and findings from the Walton Foundation survey on ChatGPT’s use in schools.

• 1. The number of American and Canadian CS bachelor’s graduates continues to rise, new CS master’s graduates stay relatively flat, and PhD graduates modestly grow.
• 2. The migration of AI PhDs to industry continues at an accelerating pace.
• 3. Less transition of academic talent from industry to academia.
• 4. CS education in the United States and Canada becomes less international.
• 5. More American high school students take CS courses, but access problems remain.
• 6. AI-related degree programs are on the rise internationally.
• 7. The United Kingdom and Germany lead in European informatics, CS, CE, and IT graduate production.

Chapter 7: Policy and Governance

AI’s increasing capabilities have captured policymakers’ attention. Over the past year, several nations and political bodies, such as the United States and the European Union, have enacted significant AI-related policies. The proliferation of these policies reflect policymakers’ growing awareness of the need to regulate AI and improve their respective countries’ ability to capitalize on its transformative potential. This chapter begins examining global AI governance starting with a timeline of significant AI policymaking events in 2023. It then analyzes global and U.S. AI legislative efforts, studies AI legislative mentions, and explores how lawmakers across the globe perceive and discuss AI. Next, the chapter profiles national AI strategies and regulatory efforts in the United States and the European Union. Finally, it concludes with a study of public investment in AI within the United States.

• 1. The number of AI regulations in the United States sharply increases.
• 2. The United States and the European Union advance landmark AI policy action.
• 3. AI captures U.S. policymaker attention.
• 4. Policymakers across the globe cannot stop talking about AI.
• 5. More regulatory agencies turn their attention toward AI.

Chapter 8: Diversity

The demographics of AI developers often differ from those of users. For instance, a considerable number of prominent AI companies and the datasets utilized for model training originate from Western nations, thereby reflecting Western perspectives. The lack of diversity can perpetuate or even exacerbate societal inequalities and biases. This chapter delves into diversity trends in AI. The chapter begins by drawing on data from the Computing Research Association (CRA) to provide insights into the state of diversity in American and Canadian computer science (CS) departments. A notable addition to this year’s analysis is data sourced from Informatics Europe, which sheds light on diversity trends within European CS education. Next, the chapter examines participation rates at the Women in Machine Learning (WiML) workshop held annually at NeurIPS. Finally, the chapter analyzes data from Code.org, offering insights into the current state of diversity in secondary CS education across the United States.  The AI Index is dedicated to enhancing the coverage of data shared in this chapter. Demographic data regarding AI trends, particularly in areas such as sexual orientation, remains scarce. The AI Index urges other stakeholders in the AI domain to intensify their endeavors to track diversity trends associated with AI and hopes to comprehensively cover such trends in future reports.

• 1. U.S. and Canadian bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD CS students continue to grow more ethnically diverse.
• 2. Substantial gender gaps persist in European informatics, CS, CE, and IT graduates at all educational levels.
• 3. U.S. K–12 CS education is growing more diverse, reflecting changes in both gender and ethnic representation.

Chapter 9: Public Opinion

As AI becomes increasingly ubiquitous, it is important to understand how public perceptions regarding the technology evolve. Understanding this public opinion is vital in better anticipating AI’s societal impacts and how the integration of the technology may differ across countries and demographic groups. This chapter examines public opinion on AI through global, national, demographic, and ethnic perspectives. It draws upon several data sources: longitudinal survey data from Ipsos profiling global AI attitudes over time, survey data from the University of Toronto exploring public perception of ChatGPT, and data from Pew examining American attitudes regarding AI. The chapter concludes by analyzing mentions of significant AI models on Twitter, using data from Quid.

• 1. People across the globe are more cognizant of AI’s potential impact—and more nervous.
• 2. AI sentiment in Western nations continues to be low, but is slowly improving.
• 3. The public is pessimistic about AI’s economic impact.
• 4. Demographic differences emerge regarding AI optimism.
• 5. ChatGPT is widely known and widely used.

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