Gen AI Could Fix Performance Reviews—or Make Them Even Worse

Generative AI can greatly improve the value of performance reviews, but most companies are just using it to produce polished versions of traditional narrative reviews more quickly rather than improve them. A better approach is to use gen AI to surface direct evidence of performance—decisions, influence, mentorship, and problem solving embedded in everyday work. Done well, AI could shift reviews from persuasive storytelling to verifiable behavioral evidence, creating more accurate, transparent, and development-oriented evaluation systems.