CEO pay fights return as investors refuse to treat AI transformation as a blank check

WILMINGTON, Del. — Shareholders will still pay for a transformation they can see. They are less willing to pay for a transformation that is a word on a proxy. Mega-grants tied to 'AI leadership' without revenue, margin, or product milestones are drawing against votes that compensation consultants had filed under last decade.

Committees are responding with tighter scorecards and longer cliffs. That is not virtue. It is arithmetic after a few highly visible grants aged poorly.

CEOs who want the grant will have to live with the milestone. That is the oldest bargain in American corporate life, briefly forgotten.