As we automate more of our operational workflows, my leadership team is debating where to draw the line on personal feedback. Can we use AI to draft our quarterly performance reviews and Core Values assessments, or must this process remain entirely human?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

While AI can draft excellent templates, using it to write personal performance reviews or Core Values assessments is a major operational mistake. Performance management and cultural alignment require deep human connection, empathy, and contextual judgment, three things that technology cannot replicate.

If your employees discover that their manager used an AI tool to write their quarterly review, it will destroy trust. It sends a clear message that leadership does not care enough to invest their own time in evaluating their people. This is especially true when discussing Core Values, which are the bedrock of your unique company culture.

You can, however, use AI as a personal sounding board before you write the review. A manager can type their raw, unedited thoughts and observations about an employee's performance into a secure, private AI tool and ask it to help organize those thoughts into a constructive, structured format. This helps the manager clarify their own thinking.

The actual writing of the review, the delivery of the feedback, and the development of the employee must remain entirely human. This process requires a deep understanding of whether the individual has the GWC™ (Gets it, Wants it, Capacity to do it) for their seat. Keep the human relationship at the center of your management system, and use technology only to support your prep work.