An AI Agent Broke Into McKinsey’s Internal Chatbot

A security startup said their autonomous AI agent was able to break into McKinsey's internal generative-AI platform in roughly two hours, gaining access to tens of millions of chatbot conversations and hundreds of thousands of files tied to corporate consulting work.

Researchers at red-team security firm CodeWall targeted McKinsey as part of a controlled test designed to simulate how modern hackers might use AI agents to probe corporate infrastructure. The experiment ultimately allowed the system to obtain full read-and-write access to the company's AI chatbot database, according to a report by The Register.

CodeWall’s AI agent identified a vulnerability in Lilli, McKinsey's proprietary generative-AI platform introduced in 2023 and now widely used across the firm. The chatbot has become a central tool inside the consulting giant. About 72 percent of McKinsey's employees—more than 40,000 people—use Lilli, generating over 500,000 prompts every month, according to The Register.

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