Accenture tells staffers: If you want a promotion, use AI at work
- Reference: 1771596907
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/02/20/accenture_tells_staffers_want_promotion/
- Source link:
A memo sent to senior staff this week, and reported in the FT, informed them that promotions to top roles at the corporation would necessitate "regular adoption" of AI tooling, and it is tracking uage.
AI hasn't delivered the profits it was hyped for, says Deloitte [1]READ MORE
In a statement to The Register , Accenture said:
"Our strategy is to be the reinvention partner of choice for our clients and to be the most client-focused, AI-enabled, great place to work. That requires the adoption of the latest tools and technologies to serve our clients most effectively."
We asked a number of rival consultancies whether they were taking a similar approach to that of Accenture. So far neither their PRs nor their chatbots have come back to us.
[2]
However, consultancies, in common with other big businesses, have poured massive amounts of resources into AI. So, if staff were not "encouraged" to use them, those investments might look like a bit of a waste.
[3]
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According to reports, McKinsey even [5]asks potential recruits to use its own internal tool during assessments .
Accenture's AI lineup includes its AI Refinery Platform, developed with Nvidia – who else – and launched in 2024. At the time, chair and CEO Julie Sweet said:
[6]
"AI Refinery will create opportunities for companies to reimagine their processes and operations, discover new ways of working, and scale AI solutions across the enterprise to help drive continuous change and create value."
In September, she reportedly warned that it would "exit" employees who did not embrace AI. Of course, there's also the prospect of staffers reimagining other ways to use AI, which also necessitates monitoring.
[7]Devs gripe about having AI shoved down their throats
[8]McKinsey wonders how to sell AI apps with no measurable benefits
[9]6,000 execs struggle to find the AI productivity boom
[10]Copilot spills the beans, summarizing emails it's not supposed to read
It emerged at the start of this week that KPMG had [11]fined a senior staffer who used AI to ace an internal training course on, what else, AI. In fact, over two dozen Aussie staffers have been caught out using AI for internal exams.
Andrew Yates, CEO, KPMG Australia, said in a statement sent to The Reg :
"As soon as we introduced monitoring for AI in internal testing in 2024, we found instances of people using AI outside our policy. We followed with a significant firmwide education campaign and have continued to introduce new technologies to block access to AI during testing."
[12]
He added: "Monitoring and education around appropriate AI use are always on. Given the everyday use of these tools, some people breach our policy. We take it seriously when they do. We are also looking at ways to strengthen our approach in the current self-reporting regime."
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/21/deloitte_enterprises_adopting_ai_revenue_lift/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aZiTNfSaJC9w3xhO8DE5swAAAdE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZiTNfSaJC9w3xhO8DE5swAAAdE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZiTNfSaJC9w3xhO8DE5swAAAdE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.hrgrapevine.com/us/content/article/2026-01-15-mckinsey-goes-all-in-on-ai-with-interview-testing-workforce-of-20000-agents
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZiTNfSaJC9w3xhO8DE5swAAAdE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/19/ai_force_feeding/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/09/mckinsey_ai_monetization/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/18/ai_productivity_survey/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/18/microsoft_copilot_data_loss_prevention/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/16/kpmg_partner_in_oz_turned/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZiTNfSaJC9w3xhO8DE5swAAAdE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Spend shedloads on an unproven tool, make your staff use it, a year later publish figures that show AI use has increased massively, bask in the warm justification of your decision to invest in it, watch the share price rise, bank your bonus.
This shows
Their staff are not using it, just like everywhere else. People ask for all users to have licenses and 3 months later ask to reduce the license count to a handful.
"it would "exit" employees who did not embrace AI"
Will they "enter" employees who do?
Pyramid
Work unpaid overtime “for exposure”.
Be “passionate” about quarterly targets.
Treat the company like family, except during layoffs.
Upskill constantly in your own time.
Be available on Slack at all hours.
Accept inflation-below pay rises “because market conditions”.
Sign non-competes that block better opportunities.
Relocate at short notice for “strategic alignment”.
Take on extra responsibilities without title or pay change.
Normalise short-term contracts as “flexibility”.
Share productivity metrics that track bathroom breaks.
Embrace “flat hierarchies” where decisions are still top-down.
Attend mandatory “wellbeing” sessions instead of reducing workload.
Buy into stock options that never meaningfully vest.
Network constantly to “build your brand” inside someone else’s.
Be grateful during hiring freezes while executive bonuses continue.
Compete with colleagues for artificial scarcity promotions.
Frame job insecurity as “entrepreneurial mindset”.
Come to office.
Use AI.
What's next?
Re: “What’s next?”
Get shown the exit.
Re: Pyramid
I chose not to choose AI, I chose something else.
*Lust For Life starts playing*
Running joke
It's been my running joke at work for a good year now. Just keep saying "AI" until you get promoted. Seems to be working well with lots of people so far, you don't even need to follow up with any detail.
"How will we meet the reduced budgets for next year?" "AI"
"How can we improve staff morale?" "AI"
2 weeks ago, I saw a fluffy video from (ironically) Accenture. To paraphrase, it said "we've used IT so much that we've removed the human interaction from customers - we need to get it back, and we'll use AI to achieve this".
Not a flicker of a smile on the presenter. They genuinely meant it.
Re: Running joke
I remember a running joke at one outfit that any new developer who utters a sentence: "Maybe we should use GraphQL" gets a sack.
Didn't believe it, until at "developer community hour", a newcomer said exactly this. There were laughs.
And indeed he got sacked the next day.
True Insultants
Insultants are idiots and this batch is just drinking their kool-aid.
Re: True Insultants
they're also con-men (and women), that's why they're consultants ( [1]Dogbert reference here )
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/comments/5z37iy/con_and_insult_from_dilbert/
The best, most productive way to perform for the company in any situation is to use the company mandated AI system!
Worker promotion and job security relies on it!
So why doesn't the company actually promote those using it for exams as it's obviously the best, most productive use of their time, rather than sacking them?
I would rather be fired.
Screw AI.
Hey. ChatGPT
Create a strategy for demonstrating the maximum use of "AI" at my job. Results irrelevant.