Why Paysend CEO Ben Chisell Limits AI Access to Top Performers

While many global enterprises are racing to put generative AI into the hands of every employee, Paysend CEO Ben Chisell is moving in the opposite direction. The fintech leader has implemented a “performance-first” strategy that gatekeeps AI tools, reserving them exclusively for the company’s highest-performing staff and those who can demonstrate a tangible return on the investment.

The strategy appears to be yielding significant results. Paysend’s engineering department achieved a 25% increase in work output without expanding its headcount. This productivity spike is attributed to the selective deployment of AI tools rather than a blanket rollout across the organization.

The strategy prioritizes 'valuemaxxing'—extracting tangible business results from AI tools.

Valuemaxxing vs. Tokenmaxxing

Chisell distinguishes his approach by framing the debate between what he calls “valuemaxxing” and “tokenmaxxing.” In his view, many firms engage in tokenmaxxing—the practice of maximizing AI usage and spending primarily to signal innovation to investors or to satisfy industry hype, often referred to as “innovation theater.”

At Paysend, the focus is on valuemaxxing, where AI access is treated as a earned resource. For new hires, this involves a specific one-month probationary period. During this time, employees are given access to AI tools but must actively justify the value they derive from them. If an employee cannot demonstrate how the technology improves their specific workflow or output, their access is revoked to prevent wasted expenditure and ensure focus remains on core competencies.

Diverging from Industry Norms

The restrictive approach at Paysend stands in stark contrast to the trends seen at other major UK institutions. For example, Lloyds Banking Group recently scaled its adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot by rolling out 40,000 licenses across its workforce. Similarly, Grant Thornton UK has committed £500 million (approximately $660 million) toward AI, which includes encouraging all staff members to utilize Anthropic’s Claude model.

By limiting AI to top performers, Paysend aims to ensure that productivity gains translate more directly into business outcomes rather than just increasing the volume of AI-generated “tokens.”

Impact on Corporate Culture

Selective access naturally raises questions about internal culture and whether it creates a tiered environment among employees. However, the Paysend model treats AI more like a specialized piece of high-performance equipment rather than a basic utility. The requirement for employees to justify the tool’s value forces a level of intentionality that is often lost in mass deployments.

As the “AI for all” narrative continues to dominate tech headlines, the results at Paysend provide a counter-case for a more disciplined, metrics-driven rollout. For Chisell, the goal is not to have the most AI users, but to have the most effective ones.

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