Exclusive: SharkNinja is paying employees $1 million to experiment with AI

AI poses an infuriating dilemma: On the one hand, it promises to reduce the grunt work present in every job. On the other hand, between the creation of AI slop, and employee fears around job loss, figuring out how to actually reap those benefits creates another job in and of itself.

Companies are resorting to a variety of strategies to solve this problem. Amazon tracks how often employees use AI, Microsoft has an internal bootcamp where teams brainstorm how to redesign their workflows to include AI, and Boston Consulting Group has made AI use part of employee performance evaluations.  

Other companies are taking a different approach: paying employees to experiment with the disruptive technology. 

Last week, design and tech company SharkNinja—best known for its viral home appliances such as a slushie maker or an LED face mask—unrolled a program to reward employees for AI innovations. In an exclusive interview with Fast Company, CEO Mark Barrocas said the company is setting aside $1 million for the program.

Under its new program, which the company calls “Jailbreak”, a small panel of judges made up of executive and senior leaders from different teams will evaluate AI projects every week. They’ll award the winning SharkNinja employees between $2,500 and $25,000. At the end of the year, the projects will all be considered for a $100,000 grand prize.

SharkNinja isn’t the only company that’s handing out cash for innovation. Brex, a San Francisco fintech company, hands out spot bonuses for AI innovations, while companies like IBM and French pharma company Sanofi award points that employees trade in for merchandise and gift cards. Earlier this month, KPMG said it will hand out cash prizes to its North American employees for AI innovation. Since KPMG’s employees are used to thinking about billable hours, the firm hopes that the cash prizes will encourage them to set aside time to think about how to use AI.  

Barrocas said the inspiration for Jailbreak came from a similar program SharkNinja used in 2025 when the Trump administration set tariffs: During an eight-day sprint, employees came up with over 1,500 ideas to mitigate the cost of tariffs, such as how to source more materials locally and re-engineer packaging to make it more efficient. (SharkNinja saw its revenue grow by 16% last year.) Barrocas hopes the Jailbreak program will set off a similar flurry of innovation.

“We don’t believe we’re going to unlock AI opportunities by bringing in lots of consultants…we think it’s going to come from the individuals who know their jobs and functions,” he says.  “Nobody knows the business better than they do.” 

He hopes that ultimately the vast majority of SharkNinja employees will start using AI. This stands to benefit SharkNinja, which will reap the rewards of increased efficiency, and employees who will become more competitive in a job market that is increasingly demanding AI skills.

At the moment, it’s too early to tell if cash programs are having a meaningful impact on AI innovation. However, so far early signs are promising at SharkNinja. 

While employees are currently required to complete AI training and read its generative AI policy, SharkNinja saw over 700 requests for ChatGPT and Claude licenses from its employee base of 4,200 people the weekend after the program rolled out. 

Barrocas has already presented two awards of $20,000 each for innovations that were created earlier this year. The first was to a member of the finance team who turned a several-day reconciliation process into a 10-minute automated process. The second was to a member of the operations team who fixed a problem with SharkNinja’s retail order management process and was able to scale the solution to all of the company’s North America business, which improved efficiency and reduced errors.

While the company wants to see how the program does, Barrocas hopes SharkNinja will continue it past this year. He is optimistic Jailbreak will also help dispel internal fears over AI. 

“We currently have over 400 open positions at the company. Unlike some companies, we’re not saying we’re going to cut roles in a significant way. What we’re hoping is people are saying, ‘Wow, I’m not able to focus on value-added work instead of the grunt work I was doing in the past.’” 

As companies scramble to squeeze the most productivity from AI, cash award programs like these may become the norm rather than the exception.