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

By Nupur Anand

NEW YORK, Oct 14 (Reuters) - 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 tools in formal performance reviews, according to the survey by Selby Jennings, a financial-services recruitment firm.

The findings point to a broader shift on Wall Street as firms seek tangible returns from their investment in the technology.

"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.

(Reporting by Nupur Anand in New York; Editing by Howard Goller)