Why this CEO believes in a bottom-up approach to AI adoption in the workplace

Good morning!

Checkr cofounder and CEO Daniel Yanisse wants his employees to use AI. And to help them along, he’s decided to pick up the check on however they choose to experiment with the new technology. 

All of the background check company’s more than 750 employees have the ability to test AI tools at their own leisure, and expense the costs. Yanisse tells Fortune workers can spend up to $300 per month, although there’s no official limit. So far, he says employees have used and expensed AI tools like Cursor for code testing, and Replit and Lovable for app building.

“We buy lots of different tools and startup solutions because we know they can do their jobs 10 times better with AI, whether you’re an engineer, in marketing, or in HR,” says Yanisse. “We want everyone to rethink their job in this AI-first world.”

Yanisse says giving workers the ability to explore AI at their own pace has been very helpful in identifying what could be more broadly used at the company level. Employees are encouraged to share updates about their AI use on dedicated Slack channels: one for guidance and support, another one for the latest AI news, and finally one to share team wins using AI throughout the year.

“We really don't know which tools are going to win yet, which ones are best, so we really try to give them time, tools, money, and the ability to learn from each other,” says Yanisse.

Finally, the company hosted their first “AI day” in March. It gathered the entire workforce in person for a full day of employee presentations on AI, hands-on breakout sessions dedicated to problem solving, and opportunities to brainstorm new use cases. 

Yanisse says it helped him gauge how employees at the company were using AI. And for those who were hesitant to use the latest tech, it allowed them the training and support to get started. By the end of the day, he says, everyone was using AI in some way, and he plans to host more of these events throughout the year.

“We really spend time as a leadership team to share why this is an opportunity everyone has to embrace, because if you don't do it in your career, other people will, and if you want to get ahead and be ready for work in the future, you have to leverage that full technology and learn to be even better at your job.”

Brit Morse
brit.morse@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com