Meta Pushes Its New AI Agent on Employees--but Eases Off on Tokenmaxxing

The company is reducing pressure on workers to use artificial intelligence tools while encouraging them to experiment with Hatch, its most advanced AI project yet. Meta is formally ending what amounted to a tokenmaxxing incentive program for employees. In an internal announcement this week, the social media giant told workers that their performance evaluations would no longer be dependent upon how much they used AI tools, three employees who received the message tell WIRED. But as Meta workers simultaneously begin testing a new agentic AI tool known as Hatch, they say their token consumption continues to surge. Almost a year ago, Meta had said workers would be graded on their AI-driven impact," which in practice meant evaluating the extent to which they used chatbots and agents to improve their day-to-day work, Business Insider reported at the time . Usage correlated with employees receiving labels such as "AI Native," "AI First," or "AI Enabled," according to a lawsuit filed in July by about two dozen employees arguing that Meta violated US antidiscrimination laws when laying them off in May. New guidance for performance reviews unveiled this week replaces references to evaluating employees based on criteria like "usage of AI" and their "AI Native" designation, with looser wording, which caveats that "these outcomes can be supported by AI or other means." It restores Meta's focus to grading employees on their impact, with less regard to how it is achieved. Some Meta employees tell WIRED the changes are subtle but welcome, freeing them from feeling pressured to use AI in situations in which it doesn't make sense. Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton tells WIRED that the updates this week aim to emphasize what has always been the case--Meta evaluates employees based on their contributions. He adds that labels such as "AI Native" were never used for performance evaluation. Engineers across the company were told this week that the company "will not use AI adoption dashboards or token counts to evaluate impact," The Information reported on Wednesday. "Are you a current or former Meta employee who wants to talk about what's happening?