McKinsey & Company Senior Partner Lareina Yee, left, speaks during a session of the McKinsey Asia Media Day at the Shilla Seoul, Thursday. On the right is McKinsey Senior Partner Vinayak HV. Courtesy of McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company dismissed skepticism over the future of generative artificial intelligence (AI), saying the technology is unlikely to follow in the footsteps of Amazon's hiring tool and IBM Watson, which both had disadvantages.

The world's leading consulting firm told global journalists at the Asia Media Day event in Seoul, Thursday, that generative AI will have a significant impact on all industries, despite risks that are still inherent in the technology.

Based on the optimistic view, McKinsey talked about the potential of generative AI in two sessions of the event, which was held on the sidelines of the gathering of McKinsey's senior executives worldwide.

The company was initially expected to review a variety of tech trends ranging from cloud and edge computing to quantum computing, during one of the three morning sessions. However, the great interest in AI in recent months prompted the session's speakers to focus more on the topic of generative AI.

Lareina Yee and Vinayak HV, senior partners of McKinsey, admitted that the growth of generative AI will deal a blow to knowledge workers in sectors such as banking and consumer retail, also mentioning risks associated with the technology, such as hallucinations and intellectual property infringement.

However, Vinayak believed that generative AI will bring "less toil and more joy," speaking about his own experience and changes in workflow witnessed in various industries.

Yee also said that a study on call center workers showed that agents became happier after the introduction of AI, as the technology enhanced their productivity, allowing the employees to build expertise.

In response to concerns that the use of AI may cause bias as Amazon's hiring tool previously advised the tech giant to hire white males, Yee, who previously served as McKinsey's chief diversity officer, emphasized that generative AI differs from Amazon's, which was an analytical AI.

She noted that the new technology will help recruiters save time, allowing them to look more broadly when reviewing the applicants.

But at the same time, she did not rule out the necessity of "human decision" for the final judgement.

McKinsey & Company Senior Partner Jeff Galvin speaks during a session on generative artificial intelligence, during the McKinsey Asia Media Day at the Shilla Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Park Jae-hyuk

In the afternoon, McKinsey Senior Partner Jeff Galvin, who is also an Asia co-leader of QuantumBlack, McKinsey's AI consulting arm, delivered a presentation on generative AI, saying that it has transformed how people interact with technology.

"Generative AI is poised to boost performance and unlock trillions of dollars across functions," he said. "Generative AI will have a significant impact across all industries."

According to the senior partner, generative AI will unlock $4.4 trillion in annual value for the global economy.

In terms of the ability to learn from unstructured data and inflow of capital into the sector, he also drew a line between generative AI and IBM Watson, which is considered to have eventually failed to reorganize the health care industry.