Boston Consulting Group and Google’s cloud unit are expanding their partnership to help joint clients deploy AI agents.

BCG is one of the world’s largest management consulting firms with about 33,500 employees. Nearly 3,000 of those professionals work at its BCG X technology unit, which helps organizations with tasks such as custom software development. The unit will play a key role in the consultancy’s newly expanded partnership with Google Cloud. Platinion, another BCG division that focuses on IT projects, will also take part.

The consultancy says that its work with Google Cloud will focus on helping customers take their AI agent projects from the pilot stage to production. The collaboration will place particular emphasis on a Google product called Gemini Enterprise. It’s a cloud service that companies can use to equip their employees with AI automation workflows. It enables users to build custom AI agents, generate visual assets and perform related tasks.

BCG is no stranger to working with Google’s enterprise AI products. Its BCG X unit has been collaborating with the search giant on AI consulting projects for more than three years ago. The newly announced partnership expansion “represents a step-change in both scope and ambition, with a focus on enterprise-scale, end-to-end transformations that deliver measurable business impact,” BCG managing director and senior partner Val Elbert told Boardroom Insight.

One reason firms often bring in consultants to help them with AI agent rollouts is that such projects are complicated even by enterprise software standards. Developers have to set up not only the agents themselves, but also the tools that those agents will use to automate work tasks. Some projects require dozens of tools. Once the initial setup is complete, IT teams have to maintain and secure AI agent tools on an ongoing basis.

The process of taking an agent from pilot to production adds additional challenges. Pilot deployments are usually limited to a single business unit or region, while a production agent is often expected to process requests from across the organization. Handling that increase in task volume requires careful planning. 

“Our approach starts with an enterprise-wide applied AI ambition and builds through multi-phase roadmaps to scale solutions into production within 12–18 months, targeting billions of dollars in bottom-line impact,” Elbert said. “A key differentiator is our close collaboration with Google’s engineering and research teams. Through this partnership, BCG’s tech experts in BCG X and BCG Platinion gain early access to DeepMind’s frontier models, enabling us to test, build, and provide real-world feedback that informs their development while accelerating client outcomes.”

Google will bring not only technology but also technical talent to the partnership. “Forward deployed engineers (FDEs) from Google and BCG X will work side-by-side with clients on cutting-edge use cases—through advisory and build capacity to push the boundaries across industries and functions,” Elbert explained.

BCG also maintains AI partnerships with AWS and Microsoft, the two other leading players in the public cloud market. The three tech giants have significantly expanded their AI service lineups over the past 2 years to address the uptick in enterprise demand.

“BCG research shows AI is now firmly a CEO-level priority, with nearly three-quarters (72%) of CEOs saying they are now the main decision-makers on AI and companies planning to double their spending on AI this year,” Elbert noted. 

Photo: BCG