Key Takeaways
- Meta laid off 600 AI employees while pushing remaining staff to use its AI chatbot for performance reviews
- The internal tool Metamate helps draft self-assessments by summarizing work history and achievements
- Adoption varies across teams, with some employees finding it needs significant refinement
Meta is implementing AI for employee performance reviews shortly after cutting 600 positions from its artificial intelligence division. The company is encouraging staff to use its internal AI chatbot, Metamate, to draft their year-end appraisals.
According to Business Insider, Meta is asking managers to utilize AI software for employee evaluations. Metamate operates similarly to ChatGPT and can scan internal documents to summarize projects, achievements, and feedback.
How Metamate Works
The AI assistant was developed as part of Meta’s expanding internal AI systems. It’s positioned as a solution to streamline the time-consuming process of writing self-assessments and peer reviews.
Joseph Spisak, product director at Meta’s Superintelligence Labs, demonstrated the tool at the TechEquity AI Summit in Sunnyvale, California. He explained that Metamate can “search all my docs and what I’ve done and summarise what I’ve done for the year and my accomplishments and feedback on me,” calling the feature “great.”
Spisak noted the assistant acts as a personal work historian, compiling detailed records in seconds that might otherwise take employees hours to assemble.
Mixed Adoption Across Teams
Meta hasn’t made Metamate mandatory for reviews, and its usage varies significantly between teams. Some employees rely heavily on it for self-evaluations, while others primarily use it as a template generator for colleague feedback.
One Meta employee told Business Insider that while the tool helps build feedback frameworks, it often struggles without detailed project context. Employees typically need to refine and fine-tune the AI-generated output.
AI Push Amid Workforce Reductions
Meta’s promotion of AI-assisted reviews comes during a tense period for employees. The company recently eliminated 600 positions in its artificial intelligence organization as part of Mark Zuckerberg’s “year of efficiency” initiative aimed at reducing bureaucracy and accelerating execution.
The job cuts affected staff in AI infrastructure, the Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team, and other product-focused groups. Meanwhile, newer hires in Meta’s Superintelligence Labs—part of the company’s massive AI investment—were largely spared.
Affected employees will receive 16 weeks of severance pay plus additional compensation based on tenure.
Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang described the layoffs in an internal memo as necessary to create a more agile organization by eliminating bureaucratic functions and giving remaining employees greater impact scope.
