AppliedAI and McKinsey & Company have announced a strategic collaboration aimed at helping regulated enterprises modernize mid- and back-office operations using agentic AI. The partnership combines McKinsey’s transformation and consulting expertise, including the capabilities of QuantumBlack, with AppliedAI’s Opus Agentic Process Execution platform to accelerate the deployment of governed AI workflows across regulated industries.
The collaboration is designed to help organizations move from AI experimentation to production-ready execution by transforming complex operational workflows into auditable, scalable and AI-driven systems.
The companies said the partnership addresses a growing gap between AI experimentation and enterprise-scale implementation.
According to McKinsey research, 62% of organizations are currently experimenting with AI agents, but only 23% have successfully scaled agentic systems across their operations. The primary challenge, the companies noted, is not AI model capability, but execution and governance.
The collaboration aims to provide enterprises with a structured and auditable framework for deploying AI-powered workflows that can operate under strict regulatory and compliance requirements.
"Our collaboration with AppliedAI addresses the need for an agentic solution for mid and back-office workflows. It also introduces new tools that support the enterprise AI roadmap, rapidly uncovers business requirements and re-imagines workflows that accelerate our AI efforts. This gives clients a governed, auditable path from transformation strategy to operational workflow in weeks not months," said Ben Ellencweig, Global Lead for QuantumBlack Partnerships and Alliances, McKinsey & Company.
AppliedAI’s Opus platform serves as the operational foundation of the collaboration.
The Agentic Process Execution (APX) platform enables enterprises to discover, build, optimize and govern AI-driven workflows while maintaining enterprise-grade compliance and oversight. The platform is designed to integrate with existing enterprise systems and includes a persistent enterprise memory layer that allows organizations to continuously improve operational intelligence over time.
AppliedAI stated that the platform is model-agnostic and built for both technical and business stakeholders, enabling operational teams to manage and evolve workflows without relying exclusively on engineering resources.
Under the collaboration:
The companies said the combined offering is intended to shorten time-to-value for enterprise AI transformation initiatives while improving operational efficiency and compliance.
The partnership highlighted a deployment with a European chemicals manufacturer operating under strict regulatory requirements.
Using the Opus platform, the companies transformed the organization’s vendor onboarding process, which had previously relied on fragmented systems, manual reviews and repeated follow-ups.
The deployment delivered:
The companies said the engagement demonstrates how regulated enterprises can automate complex operational workflows while maintaining governance and auditability.
AppliedAI and McKinsey positioned the collaboration as part of a broader shift toward agentic enterprise operations, where AI systems actively execute and optimize business workflows rather than simply providing recommendations.
"Enterprises spend trillions globally on work that is necessary but procedural. We built Opus from first principles for the agentic enterprise, turning decades of process knowledge, trapped in documents, tribal memory, and legacy systems, into governed, production-ready workflows in minutes. Partnering with McKinsey is how we bring that reimagination to regulated industries at the scale they actually need, from financial services in New York and London to industrials in Frankfurt to sovereign-scale programmes in the Gulf."
— Arya Bolurfrushan, Founder and CEO, AppliedAI
"The AI transformations are often launched with a large ambition. But ambition without execution creates frustration, not value. This collaboration delivers what our clients are asking for: a way to rewire their operations with AI that is governed, auditable, fast. It brings AI to the P&L of the organisations."
— Abdellah Iftahy, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; EEMA Business Building Practice Leader, Middle East
The companies said the collaboration will focus on expanding similar AI-driven operational transformations across industries including financial services, industrials and government programs.
AppliedAI is the UAE's AI champion and a global enterprise AI company building Opus, the Agentic Process Execution (APX) platform that lets regulated enterprises discover, build, run, and optimise governed agentic workflows. Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, AppliedAI serves clients across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Learn more at opus.com.
McKinsey is a global management consulting firm committed to helping organizations accelerate sustainable and inclusive growth. We work with clients across the private, public, and social sectors to solve complex problems and create positive change for all their stakeholders. We combine bold strategies and transformative technologies to help organizations innovate more sustainably, achieve lasting gains in performance, and build workforces that will thrive for this generation and the next.
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