Amazon Discontinues Internal AI Ranking System After Reported Misuse by Employees

Amazon has reportedly discontinued an internal employee ranking system that tracked engagement with its artificial intelligence tools after concerns emerged that some workers were generating unnecessary AI activity to improve their standings.
According to a report by the Financial Times, the internal leaderboard, known as Kirorank, measured employee usage of Kiro, Amazon’s AI-powered software development platform. The initiative was introduced to encourage wider adoption of AI tools among engineering teams and increase familiarity with emerging technologies.
However, the report indicates that some employees began using AI agents for tasks that were not always required, with the aim of improving their position on the rankings. This reportedly led to a significant increase in the consumption of AI tokens, which are used to measure the amount of data processed by AI models and contribute directly to computing and infrastructure costs.
As usage levels rose, the company reportedly decided to discontinue the dashboard and reassess how it evaluates AI adoption across teams.
The development comes as Amazon continues to expand the use of artificial intelligence within its software engineering operations. The company has introduced AI-assisted development tools and encouraged employees to incorporate AI into daily workflows as part of broader productivity and innovation initiatives.
The reported incident has highlighted a challenge faced by many organisations adopting AI technologies: balancing usage targets with meaningful business outcomes. While engagement metrics can help track adoption, they may not accurately reflect improvements in productivity, efficiency, or work quality.
Reports suggest Amazon is now placing greater emphasis on outcome-based measures that assess the effectiveness of AI tools in supporting engineering work rather than focusing solely on usage levels.
The case reflects a broader trend across the technology sector as companies increasingly evaluate the return on investment from artificial intelligence initiatives. As AI becomes more integrated into business operations, organisations are focusing on measuring practical results and business value rather than activity alone.
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