Meta Platforms is making a decisive shift in its performance management framework by integrating employees’ use of artificial intelligence as a core expectation in annual reviews beginning 2026. The company informed employees through an internal memo that going forward, AI-driven impact—measured either through individual output or team-level contribution—will become a foundational metric for performance evaluation and rewards.
The change reflects Meta’s broader push to transform into an AI-native organisation at a time when the global race for AI leadership has intensified. The company has been building internal tools and systems to accelerate AI adoption among staff, including AI dashboards, internal productivity assistants, and gamified incentives to encourage experimentation and usage. Employees have already begun using Meta’s internal AI tool to assist with drafting self-reviews, summarising project documents and preparing feedback.
According to Meta’s leadership, the shift is aimed at building a culture that moves faster, eliminates inefficiency and drives innovation across functions—not just in engineering roles. The memo notes that exceptional AI-driven results will be recognised in the current review cycle, but the AI metric will formally become part of evaluations starting next year.
However, even as the policy aims to accelerate innovation, researchers and HR experts are raising concerns about unintended consequences. Emerging academic studies indicate that performance frameworks tied to AI usage risk entrenching gender bias. Evidence suggests that when men and women deliver identical work output with the assistance of AI, women are evaluated as less competent and their contributions are perceived as less significant. Some findings indicate that work completed with AI receives lower competence ratings compared with work perceived as manually produced—suggesting prejudice not only against women but against AI-assisted labour itself.
The research further indicates that the competence penalty imposed on women using AI tools is significantly larger than the penalty imposed on men for the same AI-assisted performance. Experts warn that if AI usage becomes central to performance evaluations, organisations may inadvertently widen existing gender gaps rather than reduce them, particularly in technical fields where female representation already lags.
What makes the concerns more urgent is that Meta is not alone in this transition. Other global technology companies including Microsoft and Google have already begun integrating AI usage into role definitions and evaluation frameworks. Several companies are quietly tracking employees’ interaction with AI tools and exploring ways to incorporate adoption metrics into work assessments.
For HR leaders, the development raises critical questions about fairness, transparency and accountability. If AI metrics become a gateway to bonuses, promotions and leadership visibility, organisations must ensure they have safeguards that prevent bias from influencing evaluation. Experts suggest several steps: developing transparent definitions of what counts as “AI-driven impact,” training managers to recognise implicit bias, auditing outcomes across demographics and separating adoption metrics from capability judgments.
Meta’s internal approach so far shows the scale of cultural transformation underway. Employees have been encouraged to use AI through internal competitions and reward systems. Usage dashboards allow workers to track their progress and compare with peers. At the same time, the company has acknowledged that simply providing tools is not enough—ensuring equitable evaluation will be crucial.
The shift to AI-based performance evaluation represents a major turning point in how work is measured in the digital economy. Instead of assessing only human output, companies are moving toward hybrid evaluation models that combine technology usage with human capability. For workplaces, the real test lies in balancing the speed and productivity benefits of AI with the responsibility to ensure fairness, equity and trust.
As organisations prepare for an AI-centric future, Meta’s policy serves as a signal that performance evaluation itself is being redesigned. For HR leaders globally, the message is clear: innovation and inclusion must progress in parallel—and not at the expense of one another.