Drew Goldstein

Drew Goldstein is a Partner in McKinsey & Company's Charlotte office, where he leads the firm's culture and experience solutions group within the People and Organizational Performance practice. He leads the Organizational Health Index (OHI), a diagnostic drawing on a proprietary database of more than eight million respondents across 2,500-plus organizations, and helped create the firm's Inclusion Assessment tool. He is also a co-author of McKinsey's Women in the Workplace report alongside colleague Megan McConnell.

AI Fluency, and Why Cost Isn't the Top Reason Companies Adopt AI

Drew's current research centers on AI fluency, the ability for employees to use and manage AI tools, which he tracks as one of the fastest-growing skill demands McKinsey has ever measured: job postings seeking AI fluency have grown sevenfold in two years, faster than any other skill category and across industries well beyond tech. He points out that when organizations report where AI has actually improved their business, cost reduction ranks fifth, behind innovation, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and competitive differentiation, a finding he uses to push back on the assumption that AI adoption is primarily about headcount savings. He has also researched how employee resource groups are evolving (90 percent of organizations are expanding or launching new ones, often broadening from identity-based to experience-based communities) and continues to make the case that organizational health is a measurable, competitive differentiator distinct from culture buzzwords.

Topics Drew speaks on

• AI fluency as the fastest-growing skill demand in the labor market
• Why cost savings ranks fifth, not first, among AI's business benefits
• The Organizational Health Index and what predicts long-term performance
• How employee resource groups are evolving, not disappearing
• DEI and inclusion as measurable performance levers

Sessions with Achieve

Drew is a featured guest on the Achieve webcast "2026 Workplace Trends to Watch" (February 24, 2026), presented in partnership with Workhuman and moderated by Naomi Dishington, alongside colleague Megan McConnell. In it, he introduces the concept of AI fluency and its sevenfold growth in job postings, shares McKinsey Global Institute's ranked list of AI's realized business benefits, and reports that employee resource groups are expanding, not shrinking, despite public narratives to the contrary.

Connect

• Drew Goldstein on LinkedIn
• Drew Goldstein at McKinsey & Company

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