Managers are using AI to write performance reviews – and it shows

Highwire, a professional development firm, surveyed 1,034 corporate employees about how AI is entering manager-employee relationships, ZDNET reported. The findings cover the past year of feedback and performance reviews.

Among managers, 78% said they had used AI to help draft, edit, summarize, or inform feedback or a performance review. Most of those managers said AI sped up preparing that feedback; Highwire told ZDNET it did not ask managers what else they noticed about using AI.

Transparency was limited on the receiving end: only 16% of non-managerial employees surveyed were told AI influenced their review. The report notes that an Atlassian study from June found owning AI use at work backfired, which may explain the gap.

Employee reactions were mixed. Fifty-four percent said feedback had become more specific and actionable, while 34% found it more generic and 32% said it was less useful. The report distinguishes levels of intervention, noting that using AI to format or summarize human-written observations differs from feeding performance data to AI and asking it to produce a review from scratch.

The survey also found that nearly 1 in 4 employees now rehearse difficult workplace conversations with an AI tool. Only 44% of employees reported having their manager's support to practice a high-stakes conversation or other difficult workplace scenario, compared with 85% who said practice is key.

Synthesia's new Sessions feature reflects that rehearsal trend. It lets employees practice conversations with one of the company's AI avatars and receive an assessment from an AI coach. Synthesia said it built the feature after enterprise customers asked to expand access to managerial touchpoints without stretching human bandwidth, though it maintains Sessions is not a replacement for mentorship. Data on how effective those training experiences are for employees is not yet available.

The report cautions that Highwire's business relies on companies needing human-led professional training, and its site states it conditions human skills that can't be automated.

Why it matters: Managers adopting AI for reviews may produce faster feedback, but most employees are not told AI was involved, and roughly a third find the resulting feedback more generic or less useful. Employees without manager support for practicing difficult conversations can turn to AI rehearsal tools such as Synthesia's Sessions.