Amazon employees "tokenmaxxing" to meet AI usage targets

Amazon employees are reportedly automating non-essential tasks to inflate their usage of internal AI tools, a practice dubbed "tokenmaxxing." This behavior stems from pressure to meet company-wide targets for AI adoption, with over 80% of developers expected to use AI weekly. Internal leaderboards tracking AI token consumption have incentivized some workers to generate unnecessary AI activity to appear more engaged with the technology. While Amazon states token usage won't impact performance reviews, employees suspect managers are monitoring the data, creating a competitive environment. This trend mirrors similar behavior observed at Meta, highlighting broader corporate efforts to integrate AI and demonstrate ROI on significant AI infrastructure investments.