How AI is reshaping performance management for HR leaders

The annual performance review has long been a fixture of Canadian workplace culture. But some human resources leaders say the traditional model of performance management — sitting down once or twice a year to assess employees — is actively working against the kind of ongoing development that retains and motivates people. 

Two Canadian HR executives say the shift is already underway in their organizations, and that artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly practical role in making continuous performance management feasible for time-stretched managers. 

Brianna Madron, Director of People and Culture at DiveThru, a mental health company based in Edmonton, says her team's entire check-in process is rooted in relationship-building rather than evaluation. Hourly employees at client-facing locations meet with managers at least monthly, while head office staff connect biweekly. 

“Check-ins are not just an opportunity to review tasks, it's a check-in for us to really understand how each individual person is actually doing,” says Madron. “Yes, we’re going to talk about the work stuff, but we have a template in which the very first question is: how are you as a person doing?” 

Building a base relationship with regular check-ins 

That design is intentional. Madron says psychological safety — the confidence employees have to speak candidly without fear of consequences — is foundational to accountability. For HR professionals navigating how to build high-performing, people-first workplaces, DiveThru's approach offers a practical model. 

“When we have that base relationship, it makes it a lot easier to hold folks accountable when we need to have those harder conversations,” she says. “If you're leaving it for a mid-year or an end-of-year check-in only, that’s not going to give you an effective place to chat about all of the different things that might have happened in the year that you wanted to see done differently.” 

Lui Lanzillotta, Director of Human Resources at Burnac Produce in Woodbridge, Ont., describes a different but equally deliberate journey — one that’s just beginning to incorporate formal performance technology. He says his organization is in the early stages of building a structured system, and the gap between what’s possible and what’s practical is top of mind. 

“In the absence of AI, it will be very manual,” Lanzillotta says. “You're stuck entering information into an Excel sheet and over the course of time it could be perceived as a potential burden and additional work, so we’re integrating AI into a function like this, and we are actively looking at different vendors for a system where it's quick and easy and managers directly can enter information as they go.” 

However, if employees are receiving feedback on a regular basis, they understand at any time where they stand within the department and the organization, says Lanzillotta. “In the absence of regular meetings and feedback, employees may think they're doing well and they're never sure,” he says. “So just having those meetings and ratings, and being able to explain objectively why they're being measured that way in and of itself closes a huge gap.” 

How AI helps with real-time assessment 

That friction is where both executives see AI-powered technology delivering its clearest near-term value in performance management: not as a decision-maker, but as an administrative enabler that frees managers to focus on the human side of the conversation. 

For Madron, an AI-powered note-taking tool has been a “game-changer” for regular check-in meetings. “I can be there, present, and my AI is taking my notes for me, and then afterwards I go in and make sure everything looks good,” she says. “There’s nothing worse than having to say, ‘Hold that thought, just let me write down what you're saying.’” 

Meeting notes are shared with employees through a Google document both parties can access — a transparency measure Madron says reinforces trust. “The notes that the manager takes throughout that meeting are shared with the employee so that there's a shared understanding of what was discussed,” she says. “Utilizing AI just helps us to have those more frequent conversations and check-ins rather than once or twice a year.” 

For Lanzillotta, the vision is oriented toward scaling a system that managers will actually use — one where real-time observations can be entered in the moment rather than reconstructed at year's end. “If an employee does something that's really well or something that becomes an opportunity, it's literally seconds — they can enter it as they go,” he says. “It reduces the burden on HR having to be the service provider and take on new tasks.” 

This aligns with a broader industry shift. Among small and midsize organizations, performance management was one of the more common areas where AI was being deployed, according to the US-based Society for Human Resource Management's "The Human + AI Advantage: Maximizing Organizational Value Through AI and Human Intelligence" white paper. Among organizations already using AI in human resources, 89 per cent reported greater operational efficiency. 

Madron notes that AI-enabled technology allows her organization to track that data from meetings and engagement surveys to see year-over-year how employees feel about the support they receive and their relationships with their managers. 

Transparency, consent, and ethical guardrails 

Both HR leaders are clear that AI use in performance management raises obligations, not just opportunities. Madron is specific about where she draws the line, noting that “the ethical and legal sides around using AI is something that we're continuing to learn more about.” 

“You do need to be aware of what it is you're putting into them, and where and how it's being stored,” she says. “I also think that there’s a consent piece — when I'm doing these check-ins, I let my team know: I have an AI note-taker that’s recording this, and if someone says no to it, that's totally okay.” 

She also cautions against feeding personal or identifying details into AI tools. “I don't recommend putting in people's names and specific details or anything like that — more so using a tool to make cleaning up notes easier.” 

The human element remains the priority 

Despite their enthusiasm for AI tools, neither executive frames technology as the centrepiece of effective performance management. 

“Any opportunity that I have to use AI to streamline what my process looks like, are there other things that I should be asking here that I'm just not thinking of? says Madron. “Anything that AI can do to help me administratively so that I can focus on the person sitting in front of me and what I’m going to be able to do for them, to make them have a better experience at my organization, to feel more fulfilled in the work that they’re doing, and to have opportunities to grow and develop, is everything to me.” 

Lanzillotta puts it plainly: “We become a system designer where we implement the system that makes sense for the leaders that's easy to use.” 

Both Madron and Lanzillotta agree that performance management technology works best when it enables more human contact, not less. According to ADP Canada's Workplace Trends for 2026, the leading priority for Canadian organizations is aligning AI innovation with strong data governance, security practices, and ethical use of emerging tools — with keeping a human in the loop described as essential to people-centred decision-making.  

For HR leaders weighing where to begin, both Madron and Lanzillotta point to the same entry point: make conversations easier, more frequent, and more honest. The technology, they say, is a means to that end — not the end itself. 

“Using AI and these tools has actually helped us to have better transparency with our team members,” says Madron. “It’s a tool to help me facilitate the best, most genuine conversations that I can have with people, so I can hopefully foster a really positive experience for them in our organization — or if I need to have difficult conversations, I have things documented and I can refer back to templates that we both have access to, and use those as guiding pieces.”