AI Today: Finance firms are starting to pay for AI skills
A survey says a quarter of US finance firms now tie pay to AI skills. Here is what that number shows, and what it does not.
A quarter of HR professionals in US finance say their firm now ties raises, promotions or bonuses to AI proficiency. The figure comes from a survey by the financial recruiter Selby Jennings, published this week and reported by Reuters and Semafor.
What happened
Selby Jennings had the research firm Censuswide poll 500 HR professionals in the US finance industry between 19 and 26 August 2026.
Pay was only one part of it. Three in ten said staff must now disclose their AI use in formal performance reviews. Forty-two percent said their firm has new guidelines for assessing employees on AI skills. Three in ten said their firm has created roles or whole departments to prove a return on AI spending.
The same respondents still want people who can work unaided. Twenty-seven percent rank passing an interview assessment without AI as a highly sought-after qualification. More than one in four say they can spot candidates using AI where it is not allowed during hiring.
Why it matters
Until now, using AI at work has mostly been a personal choice. The work was judged, not the method. That is starting to change. Once AI use is declared in a review and linked to a bonus, it becomes part of how a person is measured.
Firms are asking for two things at once. They want staff who use AI fluently. They also want proof that a person can do the work without it. Selby Jennings' own advice to employers is to test for both.
That is a reasonable ask. It is harder to square with a review process that rewards declared AI use.
What is not known
Every figure here comes from Selby Jennings. Reuters and Semafor both report the same survey, so they are one source, not two. The data has not been independently checked. Selby Jennings is also a recruiter, and a finding that AI talent is scarce and hard to judge is a finding that suits its business.
The survey asked people, not firms. Semafor described it as a survey of 500 companies. Selby Jennings' own methodology says 500 HR professionals. "A quarter of firms" is shorthand for a quarter of respondents describing their employer.
Semafor also reported that the practice is more common at fintech startups and smaller firms than at big banks. That claim is not in the published data. It came from Jacob Summers, Selby Jennings' head of tech recruiting, in an interview with Semafor.
Other surveys give a very different number. PwC's 2026 Financial Services Workforce AI Survey, of more than 1,000 US executives, found 58% of firms will tie pay directly to AI-enabled productivity, according to InvestmentNews.
The two figures do not contradict each other. PwC asked senior executives what they plan to do. Selby Jennings asked HR staff what is already in place. Neither says how many people have actually seen a bonus change.
Firms are starting to pay people for using AI. They are also watching for candidates who use it when told not to. Both come back to the same question: how much of the work did a person do?