Grant Thornton AI Pay

Grant Thornton is now tying part of U.S. advisory partners’ annual bonuses to whether they actually use artificial intelligence in client work. (businessinsider.com) Tom Puthiyamadam, Grant Thornton’s U.S. managing partner for advisory services, said the firm added new annual performance goals tied to AI adoption and linked year-end bonus outcomes to those goals. Business Insider reported the policy on April 22, 2026. (businessinsider.com) Puthiyamadam joined Grant Thornton in April 2025 after 28 years at PwC, and the firm has been building its AI push around him since then. Grant Thornton Advisors said in September 2025 that it would invest $1 billion over three years in AI tools and technology across its multinational platform. (businessinsider.com) (grantthornton.com) The change puts AI use into the same bucket as other operating expectations for senior leaders: not a side project, but part of how the advisory business is supposed to run. Grant Thornton’s own AI practice page says adoption only pays off when employees are “fully using” the tools in day-to-day work. (grantthornton.com) That timing lines up with the firm’s broader argument to clients that AI programs now need proof, not pilots. Grant Thornton’s 2026 AI Impact Survey found 78% of executives were not strongly confident they could pass an independent AI governance audit within 90 days. (grantthornton.com 1) (grantthornton.com 2) The same survey said organizations with fully integrated AI were nearly four times as likely to report revenue growth as organizations still in pilot mode, 58% versus 15%. That gives Grant Thornton a concrete metric to point to as it asks its own partners to change how they work. (grantthornton.com) Grant Thornton has also been adding tools and partnerships around that strategy. In March 2026, the firm said Auxis, its AI and automation business, had reached UiPath’s Diamond Partner tier, and in February 2026 it announced a deal with Tellen around AI-powered audit quality tools. (grantthornton.com 1) (grantthornton.com 2) Grant Thornton reported $8.5 billion in global revenue last year, according to Business Insider, so the bonus policy lands at a large firm that sells accounting, tax, and advisory work to middle-market clients. The immediate test is whether partners can show AI changed delivery on real engagements, not just internal demos or training sessions. (businessinsider.com)