This told essay is based on conversations with Ran Grushkowski, who co-founded the Las Vegas-based payments company MassPay in 2000, served on its board, and was named CEO in December. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
Until mid-2025, getting MassPay’s employees to use AI was difficult. Perhaps they feared it would replace their jobs. There was a lack of alignment around how AI could deliver cost savings.
To solve this problem, we created a profit sharing program, and it’s working well. We announced this a year ago and told our employees we had two goals. One is to make more money, this is obvious. What’s more important is cutting costs.
The idea was that the more efficiently they worked, the more money they could share. I was a little shocked at first. People are used to receiving bonuses and stock options, so profit sharing took some explaining. But once I clicked, I started seeing results.
The mechanism is that companies first secure the funds necessary to maintain and grow their businesses. Profits above that threshold go to a profit-sharing pool.
Each eligible employee’s share is calculated by dividing his or her salary by the total number of eligible salaries and then multiplying by the amount in the profit sharing pool.
Assume an employee’s annual salary is $100,000, the total eligible employee salary is $2 million, and the profit-sharing pool is $300,000. Employees would receive 15% of their salary, or $15,000.
Last year, participants received 18% of their annual salaries from the program. We expect to receive close to 50% this year.
Before we started this, we were planning to hire around 5 people in 2025, but thanks to AI, we no longer need to do that. We were able to help our employees find their own superpowers and do more than before.
For example, when a company submits an application to become a customer, it used to take a week to process all the information such as articles of incorporation, compliance manual, user agreement, etc. Now it can be done within 24 hours.
AI won’t replace existing employees, and I think the incentive program has boosted morale. I was worried at first, but everyone wants to be part of a winning team. AI tools can help you improve everything you do as a team.
