Zapier is developing a compensation pilot that would reward select marketing employees based on the sales pipeline they generate using AI.
During a panel on employee AI adoption at GAI World 2026, Dan Slagen, Zapier's chief AI transformation officer and CMO, said employees have asked to be compensated for the business value they create with AI.
One employee used AI to automate work that would otherwise have required filling two open positions. The employee gave back the two open requisitions and asked for a share of the savings. Marketers at Zapier have also asked for compensation tied to the sales pipeline they generate with AI helping them to identify and bring in new prospects.
In response, the company plans to run a three- to six-month pilot to reward selected marketers based on the qualified pipeline they bring in.
"We're going to have select people in marketing start to bring in pipeline, and we're going to comp them based off the qualified pipeline and see what happens," Slagen said.
The pilot will test how to credit marketers for pipeline, particularly when existing contacts are involved or sales colleagues contribute to the results. Slagen said that finding a way to reward these employees' contributions is important for retaining them.
Deciding how to share AI gains
The compensation requests have pushed Zapier to reconsider how it rewards business results.
"I have people on the marketing team now asking to be paid a percentage of pipeline that comes in because they're able to create it so much more efficiently," Slagen said.
The second you add in, 'Oh, it's a person asking for it,' ... all the alarm bells start to go off and finance freaks out.
Dan SlagenChief AI transformation officer and CMO, Zapier
Slagen compared those requests to paying an outside provider for results. He said he would readily pay a vendor or tool provider $100,000 to generate $10 million in sales pipeline. But employees asking for compensation tied to those results trigger a different kind of response from finance.
"The second you add in, 'Oh, it's a person asking for it,' ... all the alarm bells start to go off and finance freaks out," Slagen said.
The company also needs to decide who gets credit for bringing in a prospect. Slagen said the decision is easier when a marketer brings in a new prospect that was not in the company's database. It becomes harder when the contact already exists or the marketer works with someone on the sales team.
Zapier will start by assessing those shared contributions case by case. Slagen said the company will use those discussions to learn how to credit employees for the pipeline they help generate.
"It's sort of a qualitative discussion on a case-by-case basis to start. We're going to learn from that," Slagen said.
The company is also considering how performance raises and bonuses could reward employees who use AI to automate work that would otherwise require additional hires. Slagen said finance has kept an open mind about testing approaches, even though the conversations have been difficult.
The issue also matters for employee retention. Slagen said the employees involved could leave if he cannot find a way to reward their contributions, and the company needs their skills.
Reward business value, not just AI use
Sharing business gains with employees is not a new idea. IT teams have sought bonuses tied to business outcomes, and product engineering teams have asked for a share of sales growth, said Manish Jain, founder and principal analyst of Strategic Horizon Research, in an interview with TechTarget. He argued that AI changes the scale of what an individual employee can deliver.
"The more important question is who captures the value when AI allows one employee to produce the output of a much larger team," Jain said.
Employees should not be paid for using AI, but they should be recognized for the value they create with it.
Manish JainFounder and principal analyst, Strategic Horizon Research
Companies should distinguish between a one-time productivity gain and an AI-enabled workflow that others can reuse, Jain added. A workflow that can be reused to improve work across a team or business warrants a mechanism to reward that innovation.
"Employees should not be paid for using AI, but they should be recognized for the value they create with it," Jain said.
He recommended evaluating contributions based on measurable value, strategic importance and repeatability. Rewards could include compensation, career advancement, recognition or an innovation award. Any performance incentive should be tied to the business outcome, whether that is higher productivity, revenue growth, lower costs or better customer experience.
Those incentives could also help address employees' reluctance to reveal how they use AI. During the panel, Jeremy Minich, a senior solutions engineering manager at Freshworks, said employees worry that disclosing AI efficiency gains could threaten their positions. He said the company is working to encourage and reward employees who use AI to deliver business results.
Jain argued that recognizing those contributions could encourage employees to use AI openly and responsibly, giving companies greater visibility into how employees use the tools.
But rewarding the employee is only part of the task. Companies should also reward the work needed to make a capability reusable across the organization, Jain said. That includes documenting the workflow, establishing ownership and transferring knowledge so others can reproduce and maintain it.
Without those steps, companies risk becoming dependent on the person who built the solution.
"Miss that step, and you risk the worst outcome: paying someone to stay because they are the only one who knows how a specific AI-enabled solution actually works," Jain said.
Tim Murphy is a reporter covering IT strategy for Informa TechTarget, with a focus on IT leadership, governance, workforce skills and AI strategy. His enterprise technology coverage has earned multiple Azbee Awards.