Ernst & Young Is Paying $100 Million in Bonuses for Skills That AI Can’t Replace
Forget tokenmaxxing: EY is rewarding employees who demonstrate traits such as judgment and flexibility.
As artificial intelligence tools have been rolled out in workplaces around the country—to varying degrees of success—there’s been a tendency for managers to treat AI usage as an end in and of itself, or at least a core metric worth incentivizing explicitly. This mindset has become so prevalent as to garner a name: “tokenmaxxing.”
The professional services giant Ernst & Young, however, is taking a different tact. The Wall Street Journal reports that EY’s American division has set aside a whopping $100 million for employee awards and incentives related to fostering skills that AI can’t replace. (At least not yet.)
The bonus program is meant to reward EY staff who demonstrate traits such as “adaptability, innovation and judgment,” WSJ reports—a seeming effort to hone human talent where machine learning can’t yet provide as much value add, rather than incentivizing the use of AI itself.
It’s not a total rebuke of the tokenmaxxing
Still, it’s not a total rebuke of the tokenmaxxing mindset (so named because its proponents advocate for employees maximizing their spend of AI “tokens,” a common metric for usage of the software). After all, EY’s bonus program will reportedly reward experimentation with AI, too.
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“Individuals can earn spot awards up to $500, and the professional-services firm will give cash awards of up to $25,000 to people and teams that make a material difference to the firm,” WSJ reports. “EY says its aim is to reward the skills and behaviors that matter most to the future of the firm and its clients.”
Ginnie Carlier, chief talent and culture officer for EY Americas, told the media outlet: “This isn’t a problem that can be solved with a training course or a single program; it’s going to take a sustainable, radical change.”
The $100 million in earmarked funds is meant for the current fiscal year, WSJ reports, with no upper limit on how much money a single employee can make through the program, and no limits on who employees can nominate for the bonuses among their colleagues.
Source: www.inc.com
