What it’s like to build a career in AI at Bain
What it’s like to build a career in AI at Bain
A Bain alum reflects on building AI tools for diligence and portfolio companies, and how that work shaped his career
What does building AI tools at Bain actually look like? Richard Lichtenstein, former expert senior partner and chief data officer for Bain’s private equity practice, spent more than 20 years doing exactly that: growing a data and AI capability from the ground up. In this video, he shares what the work looked like and how those experiences shaped his career that followed.
It's possible to make a world for yourself where you're working on stuff you find personally fascinating that also creates a lot of value for clients and for the world.
Richard Lichtenstein
Bain Alum
Richard Lichtenstein on what it takes to build AI tools at Bain.
From curiosity to career
Richard's focus was applying data and analytics to complex private equity problems. But the mindset behind it started with a simple realization: data could fundamentally change how you understand a problem.
"It was like putting on glasses for the first time. Suddenly everything came into focus." That perspective became the throughline of his career.
Building from the ground up
At Bain, Richard helped develop AI-powered tools for private equity diligence that helped teams understand how companies operate, who their customers are, and where value could be created. The goal was turning large, complex data sets into clear, actionable insights.
In practice, that meant mapping how businesses work, testing hypotheses, navigating incomplete data, and translating analysis into a clear story for clients. The work was often ambiguous, and that was the point.
"We wanted people who were willing to look at a problem where nobody had figured out how to use that data set to answer that question, and be excited to figure it out."
What started as a small team grew into a scaled capability that changed how Bain approaches diligence and AI more broadly.
Skills that carry forward
Richard now applies these skills at Berkshire Partners, helping portfolio companies identify and act on AI opportunities. The foundation for that work was built at Bain.
His journey demonstrates that you don't need to arrive as an AI expert. At Bain, you build these skills through real client work, using AI tools in analysis, exploring new data sources, and helping teams think through where AI creates value. You learn by doing, supported by strong teammates, structured training, and room to experiment.
Over time, those experiences compound. You develop a toolkit that goes beyond technical skills, learning to solve ambiguous problems, work with real-world data, and turn insights into action.
