Companies With No Internal AI Tool Are Running Behind

The internal AI tool for employees is becoming more relevant and essential as the technology develops. Even with its suite of consumer-facing AI offerings like Meta AI, Facebook's parent company needs one.

According to The Verge's Alex Heath, the AI tool was first previewed to employees a little over a year ago and tested with a small group. The tool is called Metamate, a name that may be derived from Mark Zuckerberg's brief attempt at nicknaming the company's employees. Heath reported that it uses company data to help employees with tasks like summarizing meetings and debugging features.

More than a year after its existence became known, even Meta employees are now publicly talking about it.

Meta product director Esther Crawford, known for sleeping on the floor during Elon Musk's Twitter takeover, touted the AI tool in a post on X recently. She said she uses the tool "all the time for efficiency gains," — and companies that don't have their own internal AI tool are "already behind the curve."

Crawford added in a response to the post that the tool "has a ton of capabilities," including summarizing documents, exploring metrics and visual data, creating queries, and getting project status updates.

Crawford's post about Metamate seems to have sparked an online conversation about the usage of internal AI tools at Meta and other companies.

One user, whose Threads profile lists her as an AR design prototyper at Meta, replied to Crawford's comments with ways the tool has improved her performance.

"Metamate pointed out achievements I overlooked to improve my performance review," the user said. "And it's also written code for me faster than I could type it out myself."

Big banks and consulting firms have implemented similar offerings for employees over the last couple of years as companies look to improve collective performance with personalized AI tools.

Other big tech giants are also developing internal AI tools alongside consumer-facing products. For example, Google's internal AI model "Goose" helps employees write code faster. One technical program manager at the company said various AI tools have transformed his daily workflow, helping with risk management and administrative tasks.

While organizations are taking different approaches, it's clear that big companies are making moves to integrate AI. A recent survey by consulting firm Bain and Company found that out of 200 US companies with at least US$ 5 million in revenue, 85 percent said adopting AI was in their top five list of priorities.

The companies also reported an average spending of US$ 5 million a year on generative AI, with a fifth of those surveyed saying they spent over US$ 50 million annually on the technology.