The world’s largest consultancy firm has been monitoring how its staff use artificial intelligence (AI) tools as it decides who should receive promotion.
Accenture, which is based in Dublin, has told senior managers they will need to show “regular adoption” of AI to be promoted to leadership roles, as industries seek to encourage staff to use machine-learning technologies.
The consulting firm has started collecting data on how often some senior employees log onto AI tools every week, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the story.
In an internal email, Accenture said: “Use of our key tools will be a visible input to talent discussions.”
One staff member at Accenture told the FT they would “quit immediately” if they were affected by the monitoring programme. Another described the company’s internal tools as “broken slop generators”.
A spokeswoman for Accenture said the company was trying to be “the reinvention partner of choice” for its clients, adding: “That requires the adoption of the latest tools and technologies to serve our clients most effectively.”
Markets are trying to assess how AI companies will disrupt incumbent businesses in the software, wealth, data and publishing industries, among other sectors, which has led to a sell-off for a number of large listed groups over the past year.
Visma, the Norwegian software company, was reported to be considering a delay to a possible London IPO worth €19 billion amid a stock market sell-off prompted by Anthropic, the AI developer. Anthropic spooked markets with its release of software capable of automating tasks in the legal profession, prompting traders to speculate about which industries could be affected next.
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Analysts at Deutsche Bank released a note this week outlining their internal AI system’s response to a query about which sectors could be affected next by AI. The note said the AI system singled out IT and software, finance, customer services, manufacturing and logistics, and media and entertainment.
In a note titled, “What AI says about AI eating itself and the world”, the analysts said: “The most insulated sectors require empathy and human connection, like direct patient care and education; those requiring manual dexterity in unpredictable environments, such as construction and skilled trades; and those demanding strategic and creative leadership.”
The adoption of AI has not been trouble-free. KPMG in Australia fined a partner A$10,000 (£5,200) for using an AI tool to cheat on an internal training course about the use of AI. The unnamed individual was made to resit the module after uploading training materials used for the course to an AI platform to help answer exam questions.