What does a better life actually look like to Americans? The McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility surveyed 30,000 of them and found that, despite today’s polarized discourse, two-thirds share the same top goal: financial security, regardless of race, income, or geography. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Senior Partner Diana Ellsworth and Partner JP Julien join Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro to explore findings from the survey—offering employers, educators, and policymakers a clearer picture of what would move the needle for many Americans.

The McKinsey Podcast is cohosted by Lucia Rahilly and Roberta Fusaro.

Any unanswered questions about this episode? Send them our way at: TheMcKinseyPodcast@mckinsey.com

Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw.

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What happens when AI agents can reason through problems well enough to complete real work on their own? This episode of The McKinsey Podcast offers answers to that question and more from OpenAI’s chair Bret Taylor, who is also cofounder of Sierra—which helps some of the world’s biggest companies build sophisticated AI agents, including about 40 percent of the Fortune 50. Taylor speaks with Eric Kutcher, McKinsey senior partner and chair of North America, about where AI is already reshaping customer service, sales, and software engineering; why open-weight models will always have a place despite the frontier labs’ cost advantage; and why he thinks the data center buildout—despite its real financial risk—is a bet the US needs to make.

In this recurring series on The McKinsey Podcast, Kutcher speaks with top CEOs about the practice of leadership.

The McKinsey Podcast is regularly cohosted by Lucia Rahilly and Roberta Fusaro.

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Nearly half of all paid work hours are tied to physical tasks, from moving and making things to inspecting equipment and transporting goods. Today, much of that work remains beyond the reach of traditional automation. Physical AI could begin to change that, expanding the range of tasks machines can perform reliably, safely, and economically. That means more than robots that can outpace Usain Bolt; it means intelligent, adaptable systems that “sense, decide, and act based on the physical world around them,” according to McKinsey Senior Partner Mark Patel. And that physical world is “full of corner cases.”

On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Patel and McKinsey Partner Ani Kelkar join Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to explain what physical AI looks like, where it could create value, and what leaders should know now to begin taking advantage of its potential for impact.

The McKinsey Podcast is cohosted by Lucia Rahilly and Roberta Fusaro.

This episode has been adapted from our McKinsey Live webinar series.

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