Meta is changing how it judges employees after an unusual AI experiment

Meta has revised its performance review guidance for employees, removing the focus on AI tool usage from evaluations. The update, revealed by a WIRED report, shifts the emphasis back to the actual impact of an employee's work. This change came after Meta told workers last year that "AI-driven impact" would be a factor in their evaluations, leading to some employees incorporating AI tools into their daily tasks to improve their usage metrics.

Employees could even earn labels such as "AI Native," "AI First," or "AI Enabled" based on their AI usage. This resulted in a competitive atmosphere, with one employee creating an internal leaderboard ranking colleagues by AI usage, complete with titles such as "Token Legend." However, Meta has now clarified that AI adoption dashboards and token counts will no longer be used to measure employees' impact.

The updated language also states that employee outcomes "can be supported by AI or other means," meaning the use of AI is still encouraged, but it is not the sole metric for performance assessment. Despite this shift, Meta continues to provide employees with access to increasingly capable AI tools, such as the experimental AI agent called Hatch, which can perform actions on a computer, browse the web, and interact with other applications.