New hires at this AI startup have to earn their AI privileges

Andrew Wang, CEO of Valon, said excessive use of AI was preventing some of the AI startup's new recruits from developing a real grasp of their roles.

Courtesy of Valon AI startup Valon recently began requiring most new hires to learn their jobs without AI.

CEO Andrew Wang said overreliance on AI led to unnecessary expenses and AI slop.

The new policy is on track to cut Valon's annualized token-spending by roughly 75%, said Wang.

At the AI startup Valon, a new policy requires most new hires to learn their jobs the old-fashioned way — without AI.

Andrew Wang, CEO and cofounder, said he instituted it last month after Valon gave employees broad access to AI.

When he examined their usage, he said he found employees turning to the priciest models for even simple tasks, a habit he worried was both costly and preventing newer workers from developing a real grasp of their jobs.

"By doing the basic work, rather than relying on AI, you start to form an understanding," Wang, a former Golden Sachs analyst, told Business Insider.

New York-based Valon, which has roughly 320 employees, makes mortgage-servicing software powered by AI agents .

In a recent blog post describing the new mandate, Wang acknowledged the irony of the move.

"It's a weird decision for a company that is at the frontier of AI usage," he wrote.

Wang told Business Insider it was necessary, though, because of the common response he got when he asked employees why they were using the most powerful AI models for simple assignments.

They told him, he said, the AI was almost always right.

That answer suggested to him that employees were becoming less likely to question AI's output or develop the judgment to spot mistakes, he said.