Meta tells employees to use more AI, their performance evaluation will soon depend on AI impact
Meta will start linking employee performance to AI-powered outcomes from 2026. According to the report, the company wants every employee, whether in engineering, marketing or operations, to demonstrate how they are using AI to work smarter, faster and better.
Meta has a new message for its employees and that is that if you want to impress your manager, you better be friends with artificial intelligence. Starting next year, the company will begin linking employees’ performance to their “AI-powered impact,” marking the beginning of a new era where the use of AI at work is not only encouraged, but expected. In an internal memo obtained by Business Insider, Meta’s head of people Janelle Gale told employees that “AI-powered impact” will become a core expectation by 2026. The company wants every employee, whether in engineering, marketing or operations, to demonstrate how they are using AI to work smarter, faster and better.
The move is part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s broader mission to transform Meta into an AI-native company, where every product, process and person is imbued with machine intelligence.
Performance reviews get an AI makeover
According to the memorandum, Meta will begin evaluating employees based on how effectively they use AI to deliver measurable results and create tools that enhance productivity. However, it is giving workers a year to adapt. AI metrics won’t formally appear in 2025 performance reviews, but employees are being encouraged to include examples of “AI-fueled wins” in their self-evaluations.
“For 2025, we will reward those who have made extraordinary AI-powered impact in either their own work or by improving their team’s performance,” Gale wrote in the note.
This means that employees who use AI to streamline workflows, accelerate development, or create smarter internal systems may find themselves in line for higher ratings or bonuses. By 2026, “AI-powered impact” will be a formal criterion in evaluation.
To ease the process, Meta is also introducing an AI Performance Assistant to help employees write reviews and feedback. The system, which is launching this month, will integrate with Meta’s internal AI bot MetaMate and can also use tools like Google’s Gemini to help produce performance summaries.
Business Insider previously reported that Meta employees are already using internal AI tools to generate reviews, and the new assistant will make it official. The company says this approach reflects its commitment to using AI in “day-to-day work” or, in other words, practicing what it preaches.
AI at work
Meta isn’t alone in its all-in AI push. Big tech companies are incorporating AI into every layer of their operations. Microsoft told managers earlier this year that using AI is “no longer optional”, while Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees in July that adoption was vital if the company “wants to lead the AI race”. Amazon is also retooling its internal processes to embed AI in both its corporate and retail divisions.
Meta is already taking concrete steps to build its AI-first culture. Earlier this year, it updated its recruiting process to let candidates use AI during coding interviews, encouraging applicants to show how well they can collaborate with AI tools. It also launched an internal challenge called “Level Up”, a gamified program designed to boost employee engagement with AI systems.
The company is clear about what it expects from its workforce. “It’s well known that this is a priority, and we’re focused on using AI to help employees in their day-to-day work,” a Meta spokesperson told Business Insider.
That “daily work” includes writing emails with MetaMate, brainstorming code improvements, or analyzing product metrics with an AI-powered dashboard. The goal is to recognize and reward employees who are driving Meta’s AI transformation, Gale said.
“As we move toward an AI-native future, we want to recognize the people who are helping us get there faster,” he wrote.
For employees, this means that the future of performance in Meta may depend less on how many hours they spend in meetings and more on how effectively they collaborate with algorithms. In Zuckerberg’s AI-powered vision of the workplace, success may soon depend on one question: What is your AI impact?
