James Manyika is a senior partner at McKinsey and chairman and director of McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). James also serves as a member of McKinsey’s Board of Directors.
Based in Silicon Valley for over 20 years, James is one of the leaders of McKinsey’s Tech, Media, and Telecom practice and has advised and worked with the chief executives and founders of many of the world’s leading technology companies in a variety of areas, including strategy, business transformation, and the launch of several market-shaping innovations. He has also advised chief executives in other sectors on strategy, technology and global opportunities.
At MGI, James has led research on technology, the digital economy, future of work, as well as on productivity, growth, and globalization. He published a book on AI and robotics, another on global economic trends, and numerous articles and reports. He has collaborated with technologists, business leaders, leading economists, and policy-makers in the US and around the world on taskforces and commissions on inclusive growth, technology and its impact on the economy and society.
James was appointed by President Obama to serve as vice chair of the Global Development Council at the White House (2012-16), and by US Commerce Secretaries to the Commerce Department’s Digital Economy Board of Advisors (2016-17) and the National Innovation Advisory Board (2010-12). He serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, MacArthur Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and Markle Foundation.
Deeply committed to the power of technology to positively transform society, he serves on the board of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the advisory boards of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, Oxford Internet Institute, as well as Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.
A Rhodes Scholar, James received his DPhil. MSc. MA. from Oxford in AI and Robotics, Mathematics and Computer Science, and his BSc in electrical engineering from the University of Zimbabwe as an Anglo-American Scholar. He has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Distinguished Fellow of Stanford’s AI Institute and a fellow of DeepMind.
James is a trustee of the Aspen Institute and has been a non-resident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution in Economic Studies. He was a visiting scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Labs, and a faculty exchange fellow at MIT. At Oxford, he was a member of the Programming Research Group, the Robotics Research Lab, and a fellow of Balliol College.
Artificial intelligence and analytics
“Your AI efforts won't succeed unless they benefit employees,” Harvard Business Review, July 2019
“Tackling bias in artificial intelligence (and in humans),” McKinsey Global Institute, June 2019
“Twenty-five years of digitization: Ten insights into how to play it right,” McKinsey Global Institute, May 2019
“What every CEO needs to know about ‘superstar’ companies,” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2019
“Notes from the AI frontier: Tackling Europe’s gap in digital and AI,” McKinsey Global Institute, February 2019
“Reskill the workforce for the age of AI,” Time Magazine Davos 2019 edition, January 2019
Interview in “Architects of Intelligence: The truth about AI from the people building it,” by Martin Ford, November 2018
“Notes from the AI frontier: Applying artificial intelligence for social good,” McKinsey Global Institute, November 2018
“The promise and challenge of the age of artificial intelligence,” Briefing note prepared for the Second Annual Tallinn Digital Summit, McKinsey Global Institute, October 2018
“Notes from the frontier: Modeling the impact of AI on the world economy,” McKinsey Global Institute, September 2018
“Notes from the AI frontier: Insights from hundreds of use cases,” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2018
“What AI can and can't do (yet) for your business,” McKinsey Quarterly, January 2018
“Digitization, AI, and the future of work: Imperatives for Europe,” prepared for the EU Heads of State, Tallinn Digital Summit, McKinsey Global Institute, October 2017
“What's now and next in analytics, AI, and automation,” Briefing note, McKinsey Global Institute, May 2017
“The age of analytics: Competing in a data-driven world,” McKinsey Global Institute, December 2016
The future of work and labor markets
“The future of work in America: People and places, today and tomorrow,” McKinsey Global Institute, July 2019
“The future of women at work: Transitions in the age of automation,” McKinsey Global Institute, June 2019
“A new look at the declining labor share of income in the United States,” McKinsey Global Institute, May 2019
“‘Tech for Good’: Using technology to smooth disruption and improve well-being,” McKinsey Global Institute, May 2019
“Automation and altruism,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, November 2018
“Automation and the future of work,” Milken Institute Review, October 2018
“AI, automation, and the future of work: Ten things to solve for,” Briefing note prepared for President of France’s Tech for Good Summit, June 2018
“The false choice between automation and jobs,” co-authored with Nobel Laureate Michael Spence, Harvard Business Review, February 2018
“Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation,” McKinsey Global Institute, November 2017
“Technology, jobs, and the future of work,” Briefing note prepared for the Fortune + Time Global Forum in Vatican City, updated May 2017
“What the rise of Uber says about the gig economy,” Fortune, February 2017
“A future that works: Automation, employment, and productivity,” McKinsey Global Institute, January 2017
“Poorer than their parents? Flat or falling incomes in advanced economies,” McKinsey Global Institute, July 2016
“Where machines could replace humans-and where they can't (yet),” McKinsey Quarterly, July 2016
“Four fundamentals of workplace automation,” McKinsey Quarterly, November 2015
“The power of parity: Advancing women's equality in the United States,” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2016
“The power of parity: How advancing women's equality can add $12 trillion to global growth,” McKinsey Global Institute, September 2015
Globalization
“China and the world: Inside the dynamics of a changing relationship,” McKinsey Global Institute, July 2019
“The global economy's next winners,” Foreign Affairs, June 2019
“Anger over tariffs obscures a shift in patterns of global trade,” Financial Times, February 2019
“The next era of globalization will be shaped by customers, technology, and value chains,” Harvard Business Review, February 2019
“Globalization in transition: The future of trade and value chains,” McKinsey Global Institute, January 2019
“Defending digital globalization,” Foreign Affairs, April 2017
“We can't undo globalization, but we can improve it,” Harvard Business Review, January 2017
“Digital globalization: The new era of global flows,” McKinsey Global Institute, February 2016
“Global flows in a digital age: How trade, finance, people, and data connect the world economy,” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2014
Productivity, competitiveness, and growth
“Inequality: A persisting challenge and its implications,” McKinsey Global Institute, June 2019
“Digital identification: A key to inclusive growth,” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2019
Digital India: Technology to transform a connected nation, McKinsey Global Institute, March 2019
“What's driving superstar companies, industries, and cities,” Harvard Business Review, October 2018
“Superstars: The dynamics of firms, sectors, and cities leading the global economy,” McKinsey Global Institute, October 2018
“The best performing emerging economies emphasize competition,” Harvard Business Review, September 2018
“Outperformers: High-growth emerging economies and the companies that propel them,” McKinsey Global Institute, September 2018
“Solving the productivity puzzle,” co-authored with Nobel Laureate Myron Scholes, Frank E. Buck Professor of Finance, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Project Syndicate, May 2018
“The US economy is suffering from low demand,” Harvard Business Review, February 2018
“Solving the productivity puzzle: The role of demand and the promise of digitization,” McKinsey Global Institute, February 2018
“Making it in America: Revitalizing US manufacturing,” McKinsey Global Institute, November 2017
“The case against corporate short-termism,” Milken Institute Review, September 2017
“The productivity puzzle: A closer look at the United States,” McKinsey Global Institute, March 2017
“Finally, evidence that managing for the long term pays off,” Harvard Business Review , February 2016
“Putting profits in perspective,” co-authored with Laura Tyson, Professor, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, Project Syndicate, May 2016
“The productivity challenge of an aging global workforce,” Harvard Business Review, January 2015
“Competition at the digital edge: Hyperscale businesses,” McKinsey Quarterly, March 2015
“Playing to win: The new global competition for corporate profits,” McKinsey Global Institute, September 2015
“Global growth: Can productivity save the day in an aging world?,” McKinsey Global Institute, January 2015
“Digital era brings hyperscale challenges,” Financial Times, August 2014
Global trends
“No ordinary disruption: The four global forces breaking all the trends,” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2015
VIDEOS, PODCASTS, KEYNOTES, AND PANELS
"Twenty-five years of digitization: Ten insights into how to play it right," DES Madrid Blog, May 2019
“The value of digital ID for the global economy and society,” World Economic Forum press conference and panel discussion on digital identity with Jüri Ratas, Prime Minister of Estonia, Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Infosys; Mary Snapp, Corporate Vice-President, Microsoft Philanthropies; Mike Kubzansky, Managing Partner, Omidyar Network, January 2019
“A conversation with Christine Lagarde,” Women and Foreign Policy Program, Council on Foreign Relations, December 2018
“Tallinn Digital Summit, Plenary session,” The promise and challenge of the age of AI, October 2018
“Has globalization undermined America’s working class?,” Intelligence Squared Debates, with Jared Bernstein, Jason Furman, and Thea Lee, July 2018
“Robotics, AI, and the future of work, SIEPR Economic Summit,” panel and discussion with Reid Hoffman, Susan Athey, and Richard Waters, March 2018
“The economic reach of AI,” New York Times New Work Summit, February 2018
“New Economy Forum: Future of work,” World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings, panel and discussion with Christine Lagarde, October 2017
“How can governments and innovators effectively partner in solving pressing global challenges,” presentation and panel discussion at UN High-level event on SDG innovation and technology with H.E. Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia; H.E. Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark; Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman Mozilla (Firefox); Aliko Dangote, Founder and Chair of Dangote Group; Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chair of Bharti Enterprises; Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia and WikiTribune, United Nations General Assembly, September 2017
“The future of economy and society,” presentation at EU Heads of State Tallinn Digital Summit Keynote, September 2017
“What problem are we trying to solve?,” A conversation with Tim O’Reilly and Reid Hoffman, October 2016
“The power of gender parity,” Google re:Work, YouTube, April 2016
“Global trends and implications for sustainable development,” presentation at the United Nations” McKinsey & Company, April 2015
TV, RADIO, PODCASTS, AND VIDEO INTERVIEWS
“The world's gone from flat, to fast, to deep,” discussion with the New York Times foreign affairs columnist, three-time Pulitzer winner, and author of Thank You for Being Late, on the impact of connectivity, globalization, digitization, and AI on work, skills, incomes, and prosperity, McKinsey Global Institute, March 2019
“James Manyika: The CEO’s Consigliere,” Podcast conversation with Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at MIT, November 2018
“How artificial intelligence can be applied to the real world,” Marketplace, May 2018
“Productivity is poised to rise finally,” Marketplace, February 2018
“We need to invest in human capital, Manyika says,” Bloomberg Surveillance, February 2018
“Who’s in control of the gig economy,” interview with Matthew Taylor, McKinsey & Company, October 2017
“The coming robot takeover,” Marketplace, December 2017
“America can bring back factories but few jobs,” Bloomberg Radio, June 2017
“How automation will affect you,” BBC Radio Future Now, May 2017
“Robot proof jobs,” Marketplace, April 2017
“The independent workforce is growing and it's growing fast,” Nightly Business Report, October 2016
“As automation advances, are jobs in danger?,” Science Friday, August 2016
Past experience
Oxford University
Engineering faculty
Balliol College, Oxford University
Research fellow
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Visiting scientist
MIT
Faculty exchange fellow
Education
Oxford University
DPhil, electrical engineering
MSc, mathematics
MA, computer science
University of Zimbabwe
BSc, electrical engineering (first class)