From live dashboards to …: How Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other technology companies are enforcing AI use among employees
Some of the world’s largest technology companies are not only building artificial intelligence (AI) tools but are actively tracking whether their own employees are using them – and in some cases – tying that usage directly to their career advancement and performance evaluations. Citing a survey from AI consulting firm Section, a report by The Wall Street Journal says that around 42% of tech-industry workers said their direct manager expects AI use in day-to-day work as of last October, which is up from 32% just eight months before. Moreover, nearly half of tech and telecom companies are already reporting a positive return on their generative-AI investments. Last year, Both Google and microsoft CEOs said that roughly 25% to over 30% of their new code is written by AI. Here are the tech giants who are enforcing AI use in their offices.
Amazon tracks how much engineers are using AI tools
At Amazon Web Services – Amazon’s cloud unit – managers of software developers have access to a live dashboard that reportedly shows how much each engineer is engaging with AI tools. Unlike some other tech giants, AI usage is not formally factored into performance reviews but it does impact promotions as managers take note of which employees are fully embracing AI when considering who moves up.
“We focus on AI adoption and sharing best practices to celebrate innovation and operational efficiency gains across the company—whether that’s during a review process or throughout the year,” an Amazon spokeswoman was quoted as saying.
Google factors in AI use in performance reviews
Google says this year, it is factoring AI use into performance reviews for software engineers for the first time. Teams and managers have discretion over how much weight to give it, and this decision depends on individual roles and responsibilities. However, the team leaders are not required to include it. The company says it encourages all employees, regardless of their role or seniority, to incorporate AI tools into their daily work.
Meta updates performance review system
Meta’s updated performance review system will also take AI use into account. The system can track how many lines of code an engineer wrote with AI assistance and includes tools that give individuals data-driven insights about their own output.
Microsoft managers ask questions about AI usage
At Microsoft, managers are reportedly incorporating questions about AI usage into performance discussions. Employees are expected to be specific about how they are using AI tools within their workflows and to quantify the impact.
Salesforce has added an AI tracker
Salesforce has reportedly added an AI fluency progress tracker to an internal dashboard. Installed late last year, it has effectively embedded AI into everyday processes. Employees can now file for paid time off only by interacting with an AI agent, and most performance reviews are completed with the help of an agent. “We definitely measure adoption. We’re incessant about looking at the data,” says Joe Inzerillo, Salesforce’s president of enterprise and AI technology. The company’s view is direct: if you are not using AI, you are most likely underperforming.Andrew Anagnost, CEO of software maker Autodesk says that getting employees to actually use AI is not straightforward as access was initially the biggest obstacle — some tools were blocked by the company, leading employees to use them without authorisation.
