Accenture has began tying promotion eligibility to AI device utilization, telling senior managers and affiliate administrators that advancing to management roles would require demonstrating “common adoption” of its synthetic intelligence platforms. The transfer follows CEO Julie Candy’s earlier warning that staff unable to adapt to AI could be “exited” from the corporate — and it seems HR is now placing that stance into formal observe. The consulting large has additionally begun monitoring particular person weekly logins to its AI instruments for some senior workers, making it one of many extra aggressive inside AI mandates seen at a significant skilled providers agency.In accordance with an inside e mail seen by the Monetary Occasions, “use of our key instruments can be a visual enter to expertise discussions.” The coverage is about to issue into the corporate’s summer season promotion choices, with Accenture’s AI Refinery among the many instruments being monitored.
Senior workers are calling the instruments “damaged slop mills”
The response internally has been lower than enthusiastic. Two individuals aware of the adjustments instructed the FT they thought-about a few of the instruments to be “damaged slop mills,” and one stated they might “stop instantly” if the rule instantly affected them. Employees in 12 European international locations and people engaged on US federal authorities contracts are exempt from the brand new coverage.The pushback is not fully shocking. Executives at three Large 4 companies independently instructed the FT that getting senior managers and companions to undertake AI has confirmed far tougher than with junior workers. Older, extra senior professionals are usually much less snug with new know-how and extra hooked up to how they’ve all the time labored.
CEO Julie Candy had already warned: Adapt to AI or depart
Candy has made the corporate’s place clear. She beforehand instructed traders that Accenture would “exit” staff for whom reskilling on AI wasn’t a viable path—and the most recent promotion standards seem like the formal follow-through on that stance.The agency says it has skilled 550,000 of its roughly 780,000 staff in generative AI and spends round $1 billion yearly on studying and growth. It additionally lately introduced partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic.Nonetheless, the urgency is smart given the context. Accenture’s share value has dropped roughly 42% over the previous yr, and the corporate is betting closely that its AI-first repositioning—together with rebranding its workforce as “reinventors”—will reverse that slide.
