Managers are expected to set clear goals, coach consistently, address performance issues early, and report progress upward, all while staying present for their people. Many have turned to AI for support, looking for ways to reduce administrative work without sacrificing the quality of leadership.
The difference comes down to how AI is applied. Generic tools can help with isolated tasks, but performance management requires context, continuity, and an understanding of how people actually work.
15Five embeds AI directly into the moments that matter most. AI supports managers during live 1:1s, helps them prepare thoughtful performance reviews using real signals like feedback and goals, and provides personalized coaching based on actual leadership behaviors. For HR leaders, AI connects engagement, performance, and retention data to surface clear insights about where teams are thriving and where attention is needed.
By integrating AI across performance reviews, meetings, engagement surveys, and people analytics, 15Five helps organizations move from collecting information to improving outcomes. Managers spend less time on administration and more time leading effectively, while HR gains a clearer view of how people programs influence business results.
Key takeaways:
- The role of AI performance management in HR is evolving.
- 15Five AI is one of the leading tools in this field.
- AI-driven insights streamline performance management.
- AI-powered performance management tools are only getting better.
The evolution of AI in performance management
There was a time when performance reviews and similar initiatives were done completely manually, with little oversight. A manager would use their organization’s premade template—if one existed—and treat every performance review as a one-off meeting. They might refer to previous performance reviews for additional context, but these reviews were rarely analyzed at scale.
These manual methods are growing more and more outdated. Not only do they make performance management needlessly time-consuming, but they also don’t give leaders a bird’s-eye view of performance trends throughout the organization. A lack of reliable data makes improving performance, engagement, and other metrics needlessly complicated. While platforms for automating many performance management processes have existed for some time, their use of AI is relatively recent.
But AI-powered performance management tools are changing how leaders manage their workforce. Repetitive, routine tasks are automated to make processes more efficient. Advanced data analytics gives leaders insights in a fraction of the time a data analyst can, allowing them to make better decisions. They even allow for extensive personalization of goals, performance reviews, and other aspects of performance management.
How 15Five AI transforms performance management
15Five’s Perform platform already gives managers a holistic view of performance, engagement, and growth. AI-powered capabilities build on that foundation by providing better data, a clearer perspective, and logical next steps in every scenario.
The result is less administrative work, stronger manager effectiveness, and a clearer understanding of how performance management drives engagement, retention, and business results.
Kona: AI support in the flow of real conversations
Performance management doesn’t happen in dashboards. It happens in conversations. Kona, 15Five’s AI meeting assistant and coach, is designed to support managers in those moments, without getting in the way.
Kona joins live 1:1 meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams as a silent participant. It captures key discussion points, action items, and summaries so managers can stay focused on the conversation instead of scrambling to take notes. After the meeting, Kona helps managers follow through by turning discussions into clear next steps and supporting inputs for performance reviews.
Beyond documentation, Kona acts as a coach. By analyzing what happens in real conversations alongside engagement and performance data in 15Five, Kona provides personalized guidance to help managers improve specific leadership behaviors over time, such as giving clearer feedback, recognizing contributions, or navigating difficult topics. This allows organizations to support manager growth continuously, without adding more work for HR teams.
AI that connects engagement, performance, and retention outcomes
AI in 15Five is built to help HR leaders move from observation to action. Rather than surfacing disconnected metrics, AI connects engagement, performance, and retention data to show how people programs influence real business outcomes.
Using large-scale engagement survey data, 15Five’s Predictive Impact Model identifies the drivers most likely to improve engagement for specific teams or cohorts. Instead of guessing where to focus, HR leaders can see which changes are most likely to make a measurable difference.
AI also helps predict retention risk by identifying patterns that signal when employees or teams may be at risk of leaving. When engagement drops in a high-performing group or performance improves following a manager change, those shifts are modeled alongside retention data to clarify impact.
All of this comes together in executive-ready insights that help HR leaders tell a clear story about what’s happening across the organization. Rather than manually piecing together reports, leaders can confidently explain how engagement, performance, and turnover are trending, where attention is needed, and how people investments are driving results.
AI-driven insights for managing employee performance
Data is a powerful resource in performance management, but most organizations are drowning in it. They use disconnected tools that generate data in silos, lack the resources to properly analyze it, and rarely use it effectively in their performance management processes. AI can completely change this. AI-powered performance management tools automatically centralize the data you care about while acting as your personal data analyst so you can do more with your performance management data.
AI can automatically detect trends in your workforce’s performance data, highlighting potential problems leaders need to be aware of or identifying positive trends you can reinforce. The more your organization uses an AI tool, the more data it can rely on, eventually allowing it to discover what your employees need, even on an individual basis. Better yet, because it pulls from so much data, AI can recommend a course of action for just about any performance management need.
OpenSignal, a global provider of network experience and market performance data, deployed 15Five’s AI-powered performance management platform to transform employee engagement. This allowed them to unite the information managers needed to better support their employees at their fingertips.
Auror, a loss-prevention provider in the retail space, uses 15Five to manage weekly check-ins, engagement surveys, performance reviews, and leadership development. With 15Five’s range of AI-enhanced features, they kept employee retention around 94%.
FlexJobs, a company making remote work more accessible, knew they were missing out on key insights from their entire workforce. With 15Five, they created organizational transparency that gave employees a clear picture of where they were at performance-wise and how they could grow.
6 steps to deploying AI in your organization
Here’s how you should approach AI deployment in your organization:
- Define your goals: Before you deploy an AI tool, you should know what you’re trying to do. Performance management is a broad discipline, and knowing your priorities (e.g., improving employee engagement) is essential.
- Start with a pilot project: When deploying any tool, it’s typically a good idea to start with a smaller dataset. This allows you to more carefully oversee performance and quickly respond to any issues that arise without affecting important work organization-wide.
- Monitor your chosen AI tool: As you deploy your AI tool, establish clear KPIs you’ll use to gauge its effectiveness. How much time are your teams saving? Is employee performance improving? How about employee engagement?
- Look for expansion opportunities: When your pilot project is successful, you can start expanding the use of your AI tool to more teams, departments, and functions. Carefully measure success over time as usage expands, to ensure it stays successful throughout your organization.
Turn everyone into a high performer with AI
Leveraging AI tools like 15Five AI in performance management gives HR professionals, leaders, and managers better data to base their initiatives on while empowering employees to take charge of a larger slice of their growth.
These tools streamline and optimize performance management efforts, improving employee engagement and retention, which ultimately leads to smoother growth and a more competitive business.
