Max Gleischman: Vibe Coding and the Future of Consulting

Max Gleischman, Partner and Global Head of Strategic Communications at McKinsey & Co., shares a behind-the-scenes look at how AI is transforming management consulting, executive leadership, and global communication strategies. Navigating McKinsey’s own massive AI integration — including their internal knowledge engine, Lilli — Max is at the forefront of helping organizations pivot from talking about AI to actively building with it.

In this episode, Max joins Andrew Bleeker to discuss why the most successful AI integration requires leaders to model the behavior they want to see, shifting their workflows from manual data retrieval to high-level strategic analysis. Together, they explore the realities of vibe coding, how the shift from traditional search engines to large language models is redefining corporate publishing, and why authentic human storytelling has become an indispensable anchor of trust in an automated world.

In this episode:

From Data Gatherers to Strategists: How automating repetitive comms tasks, like media monitoring, clip gathering, and style guidelines can free up teams to focus entirely on predictive, proactive strategy.

The Authentic CEO: Why the rise of AI means executives must step up as Chief Storytellers, providing the clear, unique, and deeply authentic human connection that algorithms can’t replicate.

Learning by Doing: Why Max blocks out time every week to experiment with new AI tools firsthand, and why he believes core communications teams – not just outsourced tech departments – need to embrace vibe coding.

The importance of cultivating broad interests and knowledge: Why the best career armor for recent graduates is wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, becoming an adaptable thinker, and the willingness to learn from being wrong and loud.

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