KPMG will begin evaluating staff use of AI tools as part of its annual performance assessments, reported Bloomberg.
The firm’s move reportedly demonstrates the increasing integration of AI technology across consulting and professional services.
According to Niale Cleobury, KPMG’s global AI workforce lead, the firm is already tracking employee engagement with AI through data from platforms such as Microsoft Copilot.
From 2026, staff will be assessed on how well they have met the company’s AI objectives during their performance reviews.
In an interview, KPMG global AI workforce lead Niale Cleobury said: “We all have a responsibility to be bringing AI to all of our work, and that’s not just the leadership, that is all the way down to our juniors.
“Now we are taking that a step further by saying: ‘Actually everyone’s objectives at year-end — what are you going to do to bring in AI to your work?’”
Professional services companies, including Accenture and McKinsey, have invested millions of dollars in AI technology. These firms are encouraging more staff to use AI tools, aiming to reduce costs and improve profit margins amid a slowdown in industry demand in recent years.
KPMG is investing in additional tools to better track staff engagement with AI, but the firm emphasises that the monitoring is not intended as a disciplinary measure.
KPMG global head of risk services Samantha Gloede said: “Monitoring is not for policing’s sake, we need to make sure that all staff are using these tools because that is the best way to do the jobs.”
Gloede also leads KPMG’s initiatives to ensure its AI is built on trust, ethics and responsibility.
Gloede added that the firm’s objective is to “make sure we can measure the value that we are getting from the investment.”
Meanwhile, Accenture announced in September 2025, that it would begin reducing its workforce by letting go of staff who could not be retrained for AI-related roles. “We are exiting, on a compressed timeline, people where reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need,” Accenture chief executive officer Julie Sweet told analysts on a conference call last month.
