"How Much Are You Using AI?"...Amazon Now Factors It Into Employee Reviews

Reuters and Yonhap report that Amazon is tracking employees' use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and incorporating that information into personnel evaluations.

Amazon has been tracking employees' use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and incorporating that into personnel evaluations, Reuters and Yonhap reported.

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On February 19 (local time), Yonhap News quoted the U.S. information technology (IT) media outlet The Information as saying, "According to multiple sources, Amazon is using an internal system called 'Clarity' to track how frequently employees use AI tools." Managers are reportedly using this system to check which AI tools employees are using and how often they are using Kiro, Amazon's in-house AI model.

Amazon is also using the status of AI utilization in personnel evaluations, including promotions. For example, employees on the Supply Chain Optimization Technologies team were given performance review questions such as "How have you used AI to drive innovation, improve customer experience, or increase operational efficiency and effectiveness?" Managers were asked questions including "How did you achieve more with fewer resources?" and "Provide specific examples of how you enhanced capabilities and drove innovation using AI without reducing or increasing headcount."

These questions had previously applied only to promotion reviews for mid-level managers and above within the team, but since July last year they have reportedly been expanded to all employees with promotion potential. In this regard, Matt Taddy, Vice President at Amazon, explained that the change was "intended to align our promotion system with impact, efficiency, and execution rather than organizational size."

Amazon stated, "By understanding how employees are adopting new technologies, we can support them in driving innovation in their day-to-day work and delivering value to customers," adding, "During review cycles and throughout the year, we share AI adoption and best practices to encourage company-wide innovation and improvements in operational efficiency."

Image of Amazon's AI coding agent 'Kiro'. Official website

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According to The Information, there has been internal grumbling at Amazon over these moves by management. Employees are also reportedly unhappy about being required to use Kiro instead of external AI models such as Anthropic's Claude Code. Attention is particularly focused on AI-driven changes in light of the decision to lay off 30,000 employees in two rounds in October last year and January this year. However, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said that the restructuring was "not for financial reasons or because of AI, but because of organizational culture."

Meanwhile, technology companies such as Microsoft (MS), Meta, and Accenture are also reportedly encouraging employees to use AI and incorporating related indicators and data into personnel evaluations.

In November last year, Julia Liuson, President at Microsoft, wrote in an internal email, "AI is now central to how we work and is essential for every role and at every level," adding, "Whether and how employees use AI tools should be an important criterion in evaluating their performance and impact." This is also being interpreted as an attempt to drive greater internal use of Microsoft's own AI tools, such as GitHub Copilot.

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