The use of internal AI tools is a direct metric for promotion opportunities within Accenture. The company wants every employee within the organization to use AI.
Accenture recently rolled out several internal AI tools for staff, and their use is not optional. A report from the Financial Times reveals that the consultancy firm tracks how often employees log into those tools per week. If it’s too infrequent, the chances of a promotion dwindle.
With this measure, Accenture primarily wants to encourage its senior staff to embrace AI tools. To be eligible for promotion to a leadership position, AI adoption is now a non-negotiable requirement. “The use of our key tools will make a visible contribution to talent discussions,” reads an email seen by the Financial Times. Employees won’t be able to fake it, as Accenture tracks weekly logins to the internal AI tools.
Carrot and stick
Accenture developed two AI tools for internal use. AI Refinery converts ‘raw AI technology into usable business solutions,’ and SynOps is described by the company as a tool that stimulates ‘synergy between humans and machines.’ Testimonies to the Financial Times show that senior employees need more convincing than juniors to use these tools. If the carrot doesn’t work, the stick is ruthlessly brought out.
Several anonymous sources told the Financial Times that the AI tools are not universally loved among staff and are sometimes described as ‘slop generators.’ The term ‘slop’ refers to AI output of questionable quality.
The strict AI policy does not apply to all 800,000 employees on Accenture’s global payroll. Staff in twelve unspecified European countries are exempt, as is a division in the United States that works for the government.
AI or dismissal
A missed promotion is just one of the consequences hanging over Accenture employees if they don’t align with the company’s AI vision. AI is ‘part of everything Accenture does,’ CEO Julie Sweet noted last year. The company boasts that it has trained 550,000 employees, or ‘reinventors,’ in AI skills. However, those who aren’t interested in this training are free to leave.
By going all-in on AI technology, Accenture aims to offset the blows the global consultancy market is taking. Accenture saw its total market value drop by 42 percent in just 12 months. Yet, AI and consultancy aren’t always a match made in heaven. Last year, Deloitte, one of the ‘Big Four’ consultancy firms, came under fire for delivering a report full of errors to the Australian government, which later turned out to have been drafted using AI.