Accenture ties promotions to AI tool usage while some employees call the tools "broken slop generators"

Accenture monitors individual AI tool logins and ties them to promotion decisions. Those who don't adapt have to go.

"Use of our key tools will be a visible input to talent discussions," reads an internal Accenture email seen by the Financial Times. The consulting giant has started collecting data on individual weekly logins to its AI tools for some senior employees this month. Those looking to advance to leadership positions must demonstrate "regular adoption" of AI.

Accenture employs nearly 800,000 people worldwide and says it has more than 550,000 trained in generative AI. Among the monitored tools is AI Refinery, which Accenture said helps companies "turn raw AI technology into useful business solutions." Staff in 12 European countries are exempt from the policy, as are employees working on US federal government contracts.

The resistance is coming from within: Two people familiar with the change criticized the usefulness of the tools, claiming some of them were "broken slop generators." One person familiar with the change said they would "quit immediately" if the rule affected them.

The case illustrates a dilemma: consulting firms that sell AI transformation to their clients are struggling with adoption internally. Three executives at the Big Four accounting and consulting firms independently told the Financial Times that persuading senior managers and partners to adopt AI tools has proved more difficult than with junior staff. Older, more senior figures are "often less comfortable with technology and more wedded to established working methods," the executives said.

Accenture CEO Julie Sweet has, according to the report, already announced that the firm would "exit" staff who could not adapt to the AI age. The company has dubbed its workforce "reinventors" as part of a sweeping reorganization and last month acquired London-based AI startup Faculty. Its share price has fallen by 42 percent over the past 12 months — from a peak of more than $260 billion to around $137 billion in market capitalization.