AI Targets the Executive Assistant: PwC Cuts 600 and McKinsey 200 in Support Roles

The world's largest consulting firms have begun to dismantle a role that seemed untouchable: that of the executive assistant. According to a Bloomberg report published on May 21, PwC laid off around 600 assistants, recruiters, and other support professionals in February in the United States, offering severance packages of four to six weeks. McKinsey cut approximately 200 technical and support positions at the end of last year, less than 0.5% of a workforce of 40,000. EY and KPMG, also according to the report, have been transferring similar positions to cheaper states or abroad. These are roles that can pay more than $100,000 per year with bonuses.

Why the Assistant is the First to Go

The work of the executive assistant—scheduling, organising travel, preparing documents, filtering communications—is repetitive and rules-based, precisely the profile that AI tools absorb more easily. It is also a visible and measurable cost, making it a convenient target when the firm decides to demonstrate expense discipline. Thus, the cut serves as a leading indicator: not because of the scale, as the 200 at McKinsey amount to less than half a percent of the workforce, but because of the direction. When an entire, well-paid, and historically stable role begins to be treated as automatable, the signal reaches all layers of support within large organisations.

This movement does not exist in isolation. EY itself formed a partnership worth over $1 billion with Microsoft on May 21 to distribute Copilot to more than 400,000 employees, after reporting a 15% productivity gain among the first 150,000 users. Investing in the tool and cutting the role it replaces are two sides of the same balance sheet.

The backdrop is a sector that was already streamlining before Copilot even came into play. Accenture eliminated around 11,000 positions in a restructuring announced at the end of 2025 and then proceeded to hire back over 4,000 people in the first fiscal quarter of 2026, now focusing on AI competencies. KPMG is preparing to cut about 400 consulting positions in the United States, attributed to weaker demand. The executive assistant is the clearest example because it is the easiest to measure, but it is part of a reorganisation that was already underway, where AI is less the sole cause and more the accelerator.

The Skepticism That the Case Requires

Attributing the cuts to AI, however, calls for caution. Part of what Bloomberg describes is geographical displacement, not elimination: moving an assistant from New York to a lower-cost state or another country is a cost reduction, not proof that an agent has taken over the task. Economists like Peter Cappelli from Wharton remind us that the financial case for layoffs due to AI is often exaggerated, and that pressure from investors and overhiring in recent times account for much of the rationale. Weaker demand for consulting in early 2026 also puts pressure on the workforce. AI accelerates a decision that firms would have made anyway, and separating one from the other, with the publicly available data, is not possible.

The Next Step: From India to Brazil

The cut does not disappear when the role is outsourced; it merely changes address, and the new address inherits the same risk. PwC operates Acceleration Centers in Kolkata, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, India, precisely the type of centre that absorbs support and documentation work displaced from the United States. India is the preferred global destination for these roles and is also where automation finds the highest volume of rules-based tasks to eliminate. Global-capacity companies established in the country already hire fewer entry-level people because AI compresses the base of the pyramid before touching the top. Moving the assistant from New York to Bangalore reduces costs for one cycle, but does not protect the position from the next cycle.

Brazil occupies the same board from another flank. The country is home to shared service centres and BPO operations that serve global firms and employ tens of thousands of people in similar support roles. National consultancies like CI&T and Falconi, as well as the captives of multinational companies established here, interpret PwC's cut as a warning about their own model: the logic that automates the assistant in New York and the analyst in Bangalore arrives at the service centre in São Paulo without asking for permission.

The truly dangerous step is the same in all three locations: the junior analyst, who performs the rules-based documentation work and has always been the entry point for a career in consultancy. If AI has already reached the administrative support of the world’s largest firms, the question has shifted from whether it will ascend the pyramid to how long it will take before it reaches the first position typically occupied by those aspiring to become partners, whether that position is in São Paulo, Bangalore, or New York.