Survey: 78% of managers use AI to draft performance feedback
A Highwire survey of 1,034 corporate employees found that 78% of managers used AI in the past year to draft, edit, summarize or inform feedback or a performance review, but only 16% of non-managerial employees were told AI influenced theirs. Employee reactions were mixed: 54% said feedback became more specific and actionable, while 34% found it more generic and 32% said it was less useful. Nearly one in four employees now rehearses difficult workplace conversations with an AI tool, and Synthesia's new Sessions feature lets staff practice with AI avatars and get an "AI coach" assessment, though the company says it is not a replacement for mentorship.
AI is moving from writing code and documents to directly judging people's performance, making transparency and feedback quality a new workplace management issue.
ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Managers are increasingly using AI to give direct reports feedback.
- How employees are receiving that is a mixed bag.
- AI fills a support gap in conversation prep.
As AI use ramps up at work, where are the pros and cons, and for whom? New research from professional development firm Highwire shows where AI has entered the feedback loop — and where it’s both a potential problem and a solution for employee development.
Highwire surveyed 1,034 corporate employees on how AI is infiltrating manager-employee relationships. It found that 78% of managers reported using AI to “help draft, edit, summarize, or inform feedback or a performance review” in the last year. Most of those managers, perhaps unsurprisingly, noted that AI sped up the process of prepping that feedback (Highwire told ZDNET it did not ask managers what else they noticed about using AI).