Companies seek returns on their hefty investments in artificial intelligence and many big names have turned to tracking employee usage of it as one way to do so.

Still, while almost every Fortune 500 company is now tracking overall AI use — even tying performance review metrics to AI use — “they can’t necessarily tie it to business outcomes quite yet,” Leslie Caputo, organizational psychologist and SVP of global solutions at coaching platform EZRA, told HR Dive via email.

So should companies implement AI use as part of their performance management process? While it can be “a great first step” to making AI part of broader workforce conversations, employers will want to consider a number of nuances inherent to AI adoption before making it part of any review process, Kate Jensen, a director analyst at Gartner focused on HR technology, told HR Dive.

The risk of tracking AI use

Looking at AI use alone “doesn’t encourage the right behaviors,” Jensen said.

“Employers mostly gain the appearance of control over a massive bet they’ve made,” Caputo said. “Companies have invested enormous amounts into AI, and they are under pressure to deliver ROI. Usage numbers are an easily-achieved metric that leadership can show the board and say, ‘look we’re adopting it.’”

Tracking use alone could allow for the proliferation of AI “workslop” — poor quality outputs from AI tools — and obscure insight into what value AI brings to the table, both Jensen and Caputo noted.

Employers also can’t ignore the potentially trust-damaging messages sent to employees when AI use is flagged in performance reviews.

“We see a lot of concern about AI replacing jobs,” Jensen said, “and I think the use of AI in performance metrics can increase that hesitancy around role replacement.”

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