Wall Street firms tie bonuses, promotions to AI skills, survey finds

AI skills are starting to count toward pay and promotion on Wall Street, with nearly a quarter of ‌financial firms tying raises, bonuses or promotions to employees' proficiency with the technology, a survey showed.

Another 30% require employees to disclose their use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in formal performance reviews, according to ⁠the survey by Selby Jennings, a financial-services recruitment firm.

"Companies are no longer just seeing if their employees are using AI tools but are also monitoring its impact on output and contribution to ‌business ⁠results," Dylan Gomez, executive director at Selby Jennings, told Reuters.

"While currently there is no established formula on how much compensation is getting tied to AI usage and performance, we ⁠expect this to become more defined by next year," Gomez added.

The survey found that 42% of respondents had introduced formal ⁠criteria to evaluate employees' AI skills, while 30% had created dedicated teams or roles focused on tracking ⁠whether their AI investments were delivering results.

The firm polled 500 executives across the finance industry.