There’s a lot of noise right now about AI and performance management.
New tools promise to automate your review process, generate objectives, summarise feedback, and cut the time managers spend on admin from hours to minutes. Some of them are genuinely impressive. The technology is moving fast and the efficiency gains are real.
But there is something important being lost in the conversation. And it matters particularly for founders of high growth/scaling businesses, where the people setup is still being built and the team is still finding its feet.
AI can build you a framework. It cannot build you a team.
Let me explain what I mean.
The businesses I work with are typically between 15 – 50 people. They’ve grown fast, hired people they know, like and trust, and the founder has been so focused on the business itself that the people infrastructure has quietly lagged behind. No clear objectives for most roles. No development plans. Review conversations that happen occasionally and feel awkward when they do.
When I ask founders why, the answer is almost always the same. There isn’t time. The team doesn’t have experience building this. It keeps getting pushed to next month.
These are real constraints. I understand them. And in that context, the idea of an AI tool that can generate a performance review template or draft a set of objectives in seconds sounds genuinely appealing.
Here’s where I would push back.
The framework was never the hard part. Most founders already know roughly what good looks like in each role. They know who is performing and who isn’t. They have a sense of who has potential and who has plateaued. The hard part is the conversation. Sitting across from someone and being honest. Talking through what’s working and discussing what needs to change. Making a person feel genuinely seen and not just processed.
That cannot be delegated to a tool. Not now and not in the foreseeable future.
What AI can legitimately help with in a growing business is the scaffolding. Use it to build a template for objectives that your managers can adapt. Use it to create a simple one-to-one structure that keeps development conversations on track. Use it to draft the written summary after a review conversation so the manager can focus on the conversation itself rather than the paperwork.
But the conversation still has to happen. The manager still has to have the skill and the confidence to lead it. The expectation still has to be set clearly before the review, not invented in the moment. And someone in the business still has to care enough about development to make sure these conversations actually take place.
This is where most growing businesses struggle. Not with the template. With the habit.
I see it consistently. A founder invests in an HR tool. The tool is good. It sits unused because nobody has the confidence to use it properly, or the culture hasn’t caught up with the process, or the managers feel the whole thing is an HR exercise rather than something that actually helps them lead their teams.
The technology does not solve the underlying problem. The underlying problem is that the basics of good people management — clear expectations, honest feedback, genuine development conversations — haven’t been established as a normal part of how the business operates.
There is a line I come back to often: business is still about people. It always will be.
AI is genuinely useful. I use it. I encourage founders I work with to use it. It can save time, reduce the administrative burden on managers, and help build consistency across a team that is growing faster than its processes.
But it is a tool in service of human judgment, not a replacement for it. The founder who thinks they can solve their people challenges by buying a better platform is going to be disappointed. The founder who uses the platform to free up more time for the actual conversations — that is a different story.
If you are building a team right now, the most valuable thing you can do is not find a better tool. It is to get clear on what good looks like in each role, make sure your managers know how to have a development conversation, and create enough of a rhythm that feedback is normal rather than annual.
AI can help you build the structure. But you still have to show up for the people inside it.
Nici
P.S. If you’re not sure where your biggest people gaps are right now, the People Blindspot Finder takes five minutes and gives you an honest picture. Link here: The People Blindspot Finder