Meta Drops Token Counts From Reviews While Employees Test Hatch

Meta has told employees that performance reviews will no longer depend on how much they use AI tools. At the same time, staff are testing Hatch, an agent that can browse the web and operate other applications, creating a sharper divide between how work is judged and the tools workers choose to use.

The new guidance replaces references to AI use and labels such as AI Native with language saying outcomes can be supported by AI or other means. Engineers were also told that AI-adoption dashboards and token counts will not be used to evaluate impact, according to The Information. Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton said the company evaluates employees on their contributions and that AI Native labels were never used for performance evaluation.

Hatch asks for a different kind of confidence

Employees have tested Hatch on corporate devices for several weeks ahead of an expected public release. Some are hesitant to connect it to personal email, calendars and other accounts because of privacy and reliability concerns, including the possibility of an important mistake.

Those concerns sit beside a recent trust problem. Meta previously paused a project that tracked keystrokes and other activity on work devices to collect AI-training data; employees said that project eroded trust in the company’s AI tools.

Less pressure, but not fewer stakes

The shift follows months when some employees said colleagues repeatedly prompted AI tools to maximize usage measures. An internal token-use leaderboard was removed in April, and Meta later rationed employee AI use.

What employees are weighing

• Some employees have used Hatch to book personal appointments and organize their lives outside work.
• Workers say Hatch consumes more tokens than standard chatbots and older coding assistants.
• Some employees fear that productivity gains from Hatch could lead to additional job cuts.

The revised review system removes AI-use measurements from performance evaluation. It leaves a more practical question for the Hatch trial: whether workers see an agent with access to their digital life as useful enough to trust.