How to Negotiate a Raise (and Use AI to Prep for It)

How do you negotiate a raise?

You negotiate a raise by proving your value with specific evidence, naming a researched number, and asking for it in a planned conversation with your manager. Most of the work happens before the meeting: a written record of what you delivered, a market range for your role, a target figure with a floor, and a rehearsed opening. AI is useful for all four steps, especially for turning a messy year of work into a clear case and for practicing the hard moments out loud.

What should you do before you ask?

Five steps, in order. The sections below cover each one with a prompt you can paste.

1. Write down what you did, with numbers and dates.
2. Find the market range for your role, level and location.
3. Decide on a target, a floor, and what else you would accept.
4. Pick your timing and request a meeting.
5. Rehearse the conversation, including the "no."

Skipping step 1 is the most common mistake. People walk in with a feeling of being underpaid. Your manager needs something they can repeat to their own boss, and that something is your evidence.

How do you build your case with AI?

Most people cannot remember what they did in March. Your manager can't either. That gap works against you, and AI can close it quickly.

Gather raw material first: old status updates, emails you sent, performance review notes, project documents, calendar entries, praise from colleagues. Don't worry about order. Then paste it into an AI chat with this prompt.

I'm preparing to ask my manager for a raise. Below are rough notes
about my work over the past [12] months. Turn them into a
"case for a raise" document.

My role: [title], at a large company in [industry]
How long in the role: [time]
My current responsibilities: [list]

For each accomplishment, give me:
- What I did (one sentence)
- The result, with a number if one exists (money saved, time saved,
  revenue, error rate, people supported, deadlines hit)
- Why it mattered to the team or the business

Then:
1. Flag any accomplishment where the result is vague, and ask me
   a question that would help me find a real number.
2. Separate "things I did that are part of my job description" from
   "things that go beyond my level."
3. Pick the three strongest items for a conversation.

Notes:
[paste notes here]

What to check in the answer

• Every number is yours. AI will sometimes tidy a vague result into a confident one. If you wrote "reduced turnaround time," and it says "reduced turnaround by 30%," delete the 30% unless you can prove it.
• The "beyond my level" list is honest. This list is your strongest argument. If it is empty, you may be asking for a raise based on tenure alone, which is a weaker case. Better to learn that now.
• The follow-up questions. The most valuable output is often the AI asking, "Do you know how many invoices that covered?" Go find the answer.

Cut the final version to one page. You will not read it out in the meeting. It is for your own clarity, and you can offer to send it afterward.

How do you find a fair number?

This is where you should be most careful with AI. A chatbot can explain how pay is structured, but it does not have reliable, current salary data for your job, level and city. It may produce a confident-sounding range that is stale or made up. Treat any figure it gives you as a guess to verify, not a fact.

Get real data from several sources and compare them:

• Salary surveys and compensation sites that publish ranges by title, level and location.
• Job postings. In a growing number of places, employers must list pay ranges in postings. Look at postings for similar roles, including at your own company.
• Your company's own materials. Some employers share pay bands or level guides internally. Ask HR whether they exist.
• Recruiters and peers in your field. A recruiter who places people in your function will often tell you what the market looks like if you ask directly.
• Professional associations in your field, which sometimes run their own pay surveys.

Then use AI to organize what you found:

I'm negotiating a raise. Here is the market data I gathered
(sources noted). Do not add any figures of your own.

Role and level: [title, level]
Location / remote status: [city or remote]
Current base salary: [number]
Data points: 
- [source 1]: [range]
- [source 2]: [range]
- [source 3]: [range]

Please:
1. Show where my current pay falls against these ranges.
2. Suggest a target number, a realistic floor, and an ambitious
   number, and explain the reasoning using only my data.
3. Point out where my data points disagree or look unreliable.
4. List non-salary items I could ask for if base pay is capped
   (bonus, title change, equity, extra vacation, training budget,
   remote flexibility).

How to pick your number

Your target should be a specific figure, not a range. "I'd like to be at $X" sounds more confident than "somewhere between $X and $Y," because people tend to settle at the low end of any range you give. Keep your floor to yourself. It is the number below which you would consider the offer a no, and it tells you when to push back or start looking elsewhere.

If your raise request is a percentage, convert it to a dollar figure before the meeting. Your manager will think in dollars, and so should you.

When is the right time to ask for a raise?

Timing changes the odds more than most scripts do. Good moments:

• Before budget season. Raises get set during planning. If you ask after the numbers are locked, the honest answer is often "I can't do anything until next cycle." Ask your manager when planning happens and bring it up a few weeks ahead.
• After a visible win. A launched project, a closed deal, a clean audit, a difficult customer saved.
• When your scope grew. If you took on a departed colleague's work, started managing people, or now own something larger, you are doing a different job than the one you were hired for.
• At a scheduled review, if your company has one, but know that review-day raises are often decided already. Raise it earlier.

Bad moments: right after a layoff announcement, in the middle of a crisis your manager is handling, or in a hallway. Request time properly: "I'd like 30 minutes to talk about my compensation and role. When works this week or next?" That gives your manager notice and tells them it's a real conversation.

What do you say in the conversation?

Keep the structure simple: state the purpose, show the evidence, name the number, then stop talking.

Here is a script you can adapt.

"Thanks for making time. I want to talk about my compensation. Over the past year I've [top accomplishment with result], [second accomplishment with result], and I've taken on [expanded responsibility]. Based on that and on what I've seen for comparable roles in our market, I'd like to move my base salary to [number]. I'd like to understand what it would take to get there."

Three details matter:

• "I'd like to understand what it would take" turns a yes/no into a working conversation. If the answer is no, you get specifics about why.
• Stop after you name the number. The silence feels uncomfortable. Let your manager fill it.
• Don't apologize or hedge. Cut "I know it's a tough time, but," "I hate to ask," and "maybe." Each one tells the listener you don't believe your own case.

Avoid personal justifications such as rent going up or a new baby. They are real, and your manager may be sympathetic, but they don't change what the role is worth to the company. Don't mention a competing offer unless you have one and are prepared to act on it.

How do you rehearse a raise negotiation with AI?

Rehearsal is where AI earns its place. Saying the words out loud, against resistance, is different from reading them in your head. A chatbot can play a manager who pushes back, and you can restart as many times as you want, with no cost to your real relationship.

Paste this to start a role-play. If your tool has a voice mode, use it, because speaking out loud is closer to the real thing.

Role-play a salary conversation. You are my manager, [name or
"Sam"], at a large company. You like me and think I do good work,
but you are cautious, you have a limited budget, and you will not
say yes easily.

Context:
- My role: [title], [time] in the role
- My top accomplishments: [3 items with results]
- My target: [number]. My current pay: [number]
- Company situation: [e.g., hiring freeze, strong year, reorg]

Rules:
- Respond in 1-3 sentences, like a real person, not a lecture.
- Raise one objection at a time. Pick from: "no budget," "let's
  revisit in six months," "you're already at the top of your band,"
  "you need to take on more first," "what number were you thinking?"
  and "I'll have to check with HR."
- Don't give in unless I make a clear, specific argument.
- After about 10 exchanges, stop and give me feedback: where I was
  vague, where I got defensive, where I filled silence, and what
  my strongest moment was.

Start by asking me what I wanted to talk about.

Run it three or four times. Try a different objection each time. Then ask the AI to rewrite your weakest answer, and say the improved version out loud in your own words. A rewrite you can't say naturally is worth nothing in the room.

The objections you should have an answer for

What if they say no or "not yet"?

A no is information. Ask for the reason in one question: "What would need to be different for this to be a yes?" Write down the answer, then confirm it by email the same day: "Thanks for talking today. My understanding is that if I [specific results] by [date], we'll revisit my compensation. Let me know if I got anything wrong."

That email turns a vague deferral into a commitment you can point to later. AI can draft it in a few seconds:

Draft a short, friendly follow-up email to my manager after a
conversation about my raise. They said: [summary of what they said].
Confirm the specific conditions and timeline they described, in
neutral, professional language. Under 120 words. Don't sound
accusatory.

If the answer stays no after you have met the conditions, you have learned something about your future there, and you have a documented record to take into a job search. Your prepared evidence and market research are useful elsewhere.

Where should you not trust AI?

• Market pay figures. AI may state ranges with confidence that it cannot back up. Verify against real surveys and postings.
• Your company's internal rules. It doesn't know your pay bands, review calendar or budget. Ask HR and your manager.
• Legal questions. Rules about pay transparency, pay equity and what employers can ask about your salary history differ by country, state and city. If something matters, check an official source or an employment lawyer.
• Your manager's real thinking. The role-play is a practice partner, not a prediction. A real manager will say things the AI never would.
• Invented achievements. If your document contains a claim you can't back up, it will cost you credibility the first time someone asks.

Also think about what you paste. Client names, internal financials, other employees' pay and anything covered by a confidentiality agreement should stay out of a public chatbot. Use the AI tool your company approves, or rewrite notes in general terms ("a large retail client," "a project that saved about X hours a week") before sharing them.

Should you keep a running record of your wins?

Yes, and it is the best habit in this whole post. The hardest part of the first prompt above is remembering what you did. If you log a win the week it happens, with the date, the result and who noticed, the case writes itself. A shared note on your phone works. So does a spreadsheet with four columns: date, what you did, result, who saw it. Spend five minutes every Friday and you will never scramble before a review again.

Could you build your own raise-prep tracker?

If you would rather not keep wins in scattered notes and a spreadsheet, you could describe a small private app to Remy, which builds full-stack apps from a plain-English description. For example: a page where you log a win in 30 seconds, tag it by skill, attach a link or file, and press one button to generate the one-page summary before your review. It would be yours, with sign-in so only you can see it. It is a subscription product, so for a single raise a plain document is probably enough. It makes more sense if you want a durable career record or something your whole team could use.