Artificial Intelligence

EY Offering $100M in Bonuses for 'Human Skills'

Is this bold leadership for the future or incentivizing the sloppiness that already embarrassed the firm?

Published SEP 1

EY Offering $100M in Bonuses for 'Human Skills'

Story

Above: Ernst & Young office in Sydney, Australia, on July 7. Image credit: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Facts

Accounting firm Ernst & Young's U.S. division announced Monday that it will invest $100 million in employee rewards for the current fiscal year, recognizing professionals who demonstrate skills such as adaptability, judgment and innovation alongside AI adoption.
EY
The Wall Street Journal
Quartz
The program includes three award categories — everyday leadership, transformation that drives measurable results and game-changing impact for the enterprise — with spot bonuses up to $500 and team awards ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.
EY
India Today
Employees at all levels can nominate colleagues, and there is no cap on the total amount any individual can receive. The maximum award is five times higher than under EY's previous program.
CBS News
Quartz
The rewards program is part of a broader talent initiative that includes an EY Career Residency offering up to 12 months of training beyond the standard eight-week internship. EY also reports that 95% of its partners have completed in-person sessions on AI's impact on business models.
Quartz
The Wall Street Journal
Fellow Big Four firms have taken similar steps: KPMG restructured its audit internship curriculum to emphasize critical thinking, while PwC U.S. launched a training program combining AI proficiency with human traits such as empathy and creativity.
The Wall Street Journal
Fortune
EY reported its AI-related revenue rose 30% year-over-year in 2025, and the firm noted that AI-driven efficiency is prompting some professional-services companies to shift from hourly billing toward outcomes-based pricing models.
EY
Quartz

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The Spin

Techno-optimist narrative

Investing in employees who embrace AI and innovation is exactly the kind of bold leadership the modern workplace needs. Spot awards up to $500 and team prizes up to $25,000 send a clear message: human judgment and adaptability matter most in a tech-driven world. This is how forward-thinking firms build a workforce ready to lead, not just survive, the AI revolution.

Mark C. Crowley on LinkedIn

Techno-skeptic narrative

Rewarding AI adoption rings hollow when the Big Four keep publishing AI-hallucinated garbage with fake footnotes and made-up sources. EY itself retracted a study over fabricated citations, and now it wants to hand out cash prizes for embracing the same tools that corrupted its own research. Incentivizing speed over rigor doesn't build the workforce of the future. Instead, it just puts a bigger budget behind the same sloppy results.

TNW

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