If there’s one point of consensus among CES 2026 keynote speakers, it’s that artificial intelligence is reshaping technology at a speed and scale unlike any previous technological revolution.
In a live taping Tuesday of the All-In podcast, co-host Jason Calacanis interviewed Bob Sternfels, Global Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company, and Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst. Their discussion focused on how artificial intelligence is transforming investment strategies and the workforce.
“The world has completely changed,” Taneja said of the unprecedented growth of AI companies. He noted that while Stripe took about 12 years to reach a $100 billion valuation, Anthropic, another General Catalyst portfolio company, jumped from $60 billion last year to “a couple of hundred billion dollars” this year.
Taneja believes we are on the verge of seeing a new wave of trillion dollar companies. “This is not a pie-in-the-sky idea with Anthropic, OpenAI and a few others,” he said.
Calacanis pressed them on what is driving this explosive growth. According to McKinsey’s Sternfels, while many companies are testing AI products, non-tech businesses remain on the fence about full adoption. Sternfels says the question McKinsey consultants often hear from CEOs is, “Am I listening to my CFO or CIO right now?”
CFOs, seeing little return on investment, support delaying implementation. Meanwhile, CIOs claim it’s “crazy” not to adopt AI because “we’re going to be disrupted,” Sternfels said.
Another key concern is how artificial intelligence is reshaping the workforce. “Some people look at artificial intelligence and get scared,” Kalakanis said, pointing to concerns that artificial intelligence could replace jobs traditionally filled by recent graduates. He asked Sternfels and Taneja for advice on what young people should do in this new landscape.
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Sternfels said that while AI models can handle many tasks, good judgment and creativity remain the key skills humans need to succeed in an AI world.
Meanwhile, Taneja argued that people need to recognize that “skilling and re-skilling” will be a lifelong endeavor. “This idea that we spend 22 years learning and then 40 years working has collapsed,” he said.
Calacanis agreed that in a world where it may take less time to build an AI agent than it does to train a new worker, humans need to find ways to stay relevant. “To stand out, you have to show chutzpah, drive, passion,” he said.
Sternfels provided a glimpse into that future. While he expects McKinsey to have as many “personalized” AI agents as employees by the end of 2026, he noted that the number of employees will not necessarily decrease. Instead, the company changes its composition. increases employees working directly with customers by 25%, while reducing back-office roles by the same percentage.
