想成为麦肯锡的早期员工吗？首先，你可能需要通过与人工智能虚拟角色的互动来证明自己的能力。
Want to get in on the ground floor at McKinsey? You may need to successfully hold your own with an AI avatar first.
这家顶尖咨询公司今年秋季将对部分入门级咨询职位的面试流程进行改革，新增了一项模拟客户沟通的环节。其目的是测试应聘者能否在压力下迅速思考，并妥善处理与麦肯锡客户的对话——其中一些客户可能会提出更具挑战性或复杂性的问题。
The elite consulting firm is changing its interview process for some entry-level consulting candidates this fall, adding a new type of client simulation. The idea is to test how recruits think on their feet and handle conversations with McKinsey clients, some of them more inquisitive or difficult than others.
虽然这只是一个模拟环节，但与人工智能的对话时长约为10分钟，且会在麦肯锡的真实办公环境中进行，面试官会观察应聘者的表现。
Though it’s all a simulation, the approximately 10-minute conversation with the AI will take place in McKinsey’s very real offices, with partners or interview assessors in the room observing how the candidates do.
麦肯锡的合作伙伴表示，该人工智能工具本身不会对候选人的表现进行评分或评估。该工具已经根据不同类型的客户特征（例如那些希望深入了解公司建议的“学术型”客户）进行了训练。
The AI tool won’t provide any of its own scoring or assessments on how a candidate performs, McKinsey partners say. The tool has been trained on various client personalities, such as the “professorial” client seeking to better understand the firm’s recommendations.
参与该测试的麦肯锡达拉斯办公室合伙人萨利姆·扎法尔（Saleem Zafar）解释说：“这个虚拟角色并不是为了模拟那些行为古怪或喜欢提出刁钻问题的客户而设计的；它的目的是模拟麦肯锡顾问在日常工作中可能遇到的80%的沟通场景。”扎法尔进一步指出：“我们关注的重点是：‘他们说了什么重要的内容？你有没有认真回应？你是否按照自己的思路来回答问题？’我们想了解的是应聘者面对变化时的应对能力。”
The avatar isn’t designed to mimic an unhinged client, or one asking “gotcha” questions, said Saleem Zafar, a partner in McKinsey’s Dallas office who helped design the pilot. Rather, it aims to reflect 80% of the scenarios McKinsey consultants may encounter in their day-to-day work. “The things I’m paying attention to are: Hey, did you hear what they said that was important? Did you act on that? Did you blow through it? Did you come with your agenda and you’re like, ‘I’m gonna steamroll this answer,’” Zafar said. “What we’re looking for is how do you respond to changing stimuli?”
麦肯锡计划在今年秋季对申请北美地区业务分析师职位的本科生进行这项测试，预计将有数百名应聘者参与。如果测试成功，该公司计划明年将这一工具应用于其他职位的面试中。
McKinsey is testing the avatar with undergraduates applying for business-analyst jobs in some North American offices this fall, and hundreds of candidates are likely to participate. If successful, the firm expects to use it for other roles next year.
各行各业的公司正开始改变招聘方式，以适应人工智能时代并更好地利用该技术的能力。一些雇主在招聘过程中加入了新的人工智能筛选工具，另一些则在招聘环节中使用防作弊软件。
Companies across the economy are beginning to change their hiring methods to adapt to the AI era and to make better use of the technology’s capabilities. Some employers are adding new AI-powered screening tools, while others are including cheating-detection software during the hiring process.
在麦肯锡，获得公司内部职位长期以来一直是一个多步骤的艰苦过程。候选人通常要接受合伙人等人的面试，然后参加案例研究挑战，并现场解决问题。
At McKinsey, snagging a job inside the firm has long been a multistep slog. Candidates typically interview with partners and others, then participate in a case-study challenge and solve problems on the spot.
现在，挑战结束后，候选人将在笔记本电脑上与人工智能化身对话。
Now, after the challenge, the candidate will chat with the AI avatar on a laptop.
“我们能够以一种不依赖准备的方式读取这些以人为本的素质，”麦肯锡合伙人、全球招聘共同负责人布莱尔·西斯尔（Blair Ciesil）说。“有时候候选人会带着相当排练的故事来面试。这并不意味着这些故事不优秀，但会让我们的面试官很难真正捕捉到其内在本质。”以一个假设的例子说明：某城市聘请麦肯锡研究新体育场的选址。在这种情境下，人工智能化身将扮演市长的角色，审问顾问的建议，扎法尔（Zafar）说。
“We get a read for those human-centered qualities in a way that doesn’t rely on preparation,” said Blair Ciesil, a McKinsey partner who co-leads global recruiting. “Sometimes candidates can come in with stories that are quite rehearsed. That doesn’t mean they’re not excellent stories, but it makes it very challenging for our interviewers to really get to the underlying intrinsics.”Take the hypothetical example of a city that has hired McKinsey to study where to place a new athletic stadium. In that scenario, the AI avatar would serve as the mayor, looking to interrogate the consultant’s recommendations, Zafar said.
“市长会有一些对她非常重要的事项，她想听取你的建议，”他说。“但当你分享建议时，她可能会提出额外的顾虑或补充背景信息。”其他雇主对在招聘中使用人工智能持保留态度，担心偏见或违反不断变化的人工智能招聘立法。麦肯锡合伙人表示，这一人工智能工具旨在为流程增添公平性，因为有些人工面试官在角色扮演练习中可能比其他人更苛刻。
“The mayor is going to have some very important things that matter to her, and she’s going to want to hear your recommendations,” he said. “But as you might share your recommendations, she might bring some additional concerns or additional layers of context.”Other employers have been loath to use AI in recruiting, fearful of bias or running afoul of changing legislation on AI in hiring. The AI tool is meant to add fairness to the process, McKinsey partners say, since some human interviewers can be tougher than others in role-playing exercises.
在招聘方面，扎法尔表示，公司正试图预测“这个人是否会成功，或者那个人是否会成功”。他表示，新工具旨在帮助面试官更好地理解：“这个人的核心是什么？这个人到底是谁？”请通过电子邮件联系Chip Cutter，邮箱为chip.cutter@wsj.com。
In recruiting, Zafar said the firm is trying to predict “whether this person will be successful or will that person be successful.”The new tool, he said, aims to help interviewers better understand: “What is the heart of this person? Who really is this person?”Write to Chip Cutter at chip.cutter@wsj.com