McKinsey’s 2025 workplace AI research confirms that 40% of employees say incentives and financial rewards would increase their daily use of AI — ranking it fourth among the factors that would most improve adoption, behind training, workflow integration and tool access. EY’s Work Reimagined survey goes further, finding that organizations that formally align rewards with AI behaviors and outcomes are significantly more likely to achieve transformational results, while those that deploy AI onto “fragile talent foundations — weak culture, insufficient learning, misaligned rewards” see productivity benefits lag by over 40%.

The principle behind all of these approaches is the same: Employees will share the benefits of AI when sharing the benefits of AI is rewarded — concretely, consistently and visibly. Until that condition is met, the most productive employees in the organization will remain the quietest.

Step 3: Rebuild the board update around outcomes and employee voice

Third, demand more from the board update. Grant Thornton’s 2026 AI Impact Survey found that organizations with fully integrated AI are nearly four times more likely to report revenue growth than those still piloting. The difference is not primarily technological — it is governance and accountability. The leading organizations can demonstrate how their AI makes decisions, who owns the outcomes and what happens when something goes wrong. That level of transparency can only exist when both leadership and employees are operating in the open.