Accenture plans to base future promotions on employees’ use of AI. Photo: Shutterstock
Accenture employees may need to prove they’re leveraging artificial intelligence to advance.
The consulting giant has reportedly started measuring staff engagement with internal AI tools as part of promotion decisions.
Internal emails viewed by financial times Associate directors and senior managers said they would need to demonstrate “regular adoption” of AI to secure leadership roles.
The weekly logins of some senior employees to two internal AI platforms are being tracked in preparation for the next top-level promotion, and the company says their use of the tools will provide “visible input” into talent discussions.
One of the tools being monitored will reportedly be Accenture’s AI Refinery. It’s a tool built in collaboration with chipmaker Nvidia to help companies expand their use of generative AI and transform “raw AI technology” into “useful business solutions.”
Employees seeking promotions will also need to increase their use of SynOps, a “human-machine operations engine” that the company launched in 2019 to automate repetitive tasks, foster growth, and “scale operations quickly.”
Accenture employs approximately 780,000 staff across its global operations and previously claimed that more than 550,000 employees were trained in generative AI.
Sales increase due to staff reduction
Despite Wall Street expecting Accenture’s December quarter revenue to be $26.19 billion (US$18.52 billion), the company beat expectations by raking in about $26.5 billion (US$18.74 billion).
Following the unexpected revenue increase, CEO Julie Sweet said the company strengthened its “leadership in advanced AI,” at the same time the company announced new partnerships with chatbot makers OpenAI and Anthropic.
Accenture is perhaps best known for consulting, cloud services, and business process outsourcing in the 2010s, but in recent years it has aggressively promoted AI and machine learning solutions, particularly with the aim of optimizing workplace operations.
“Our strategy is to be our customers’ preferred reinvention partner and the most customer-centric, AI-enabled workplace in the world,” Accenture said in its first quarter results.
Last year, the consulting giant, which cut about 11,000 jobs in just three months, told employees to adopt AI or face losing their jobs.
Accenture is also pushing to rebrand its employees as “reinventors.” The label comes after the company announced in June that it would reorganize its Strategy, Consulting, Creative, Technology and Operations divisions into a single AI-focused “Reinvention Services” division.
Results can be uneven
Karin Verspool, dean of RMIT’s School of Computing Technology, said the use of AI in itself should not be seen as “evidence that the tools are being used effectively or are having a significant impact on people’s job performance”.
“There are many examples of AI leading people down rabbit holes, or creating more jobs when they try to co-create something with AI and realize that AI isn’t providing them with enough of what they want,” Verspool said.
He added that Accenture was likely trying to “drive innovation within the organization” but that it would be far more useful to “measure the effectiveness rather than the simple use” of the technology.
“Organizations seem to be trying to encourage the adoption of technology, but that adoption should be purposeful,” she says.
“There is no value in using AI for its own sake.”
