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AI Coach in Performance

Learn how to use AI Coach in Performance to draft balanced, personalized manager reviews in Culture Amp Performance Review cycles.

Written by Jessie Walsh

Who can use this feature?

Available on:

  • Culture Amp subscriptions with Performance Cycles

Note: This article focuses on how to use AI Coach in Performance. If you're an administrator looking for guidance on how to configure access for the feature, please see Admin Guide: Managing AI Coach Access & Adoption.

Overview


AI Coach in Performance is a helpful tool that uses data from across the Culture Amp platform to assist both managers writing reviews and employees completing their self-reflections. By synthesizing feedback and recognition, it helps you create thoughtful, balanced, and personalized performance content.

AI Coach helps you:

  • Save time: It takes the pain out of "staring at a blank page" by making sense of data from current and past cycles, then synthesizing that information into a first draft.

  • Improve review quality: It reduces biases and subjectivity by drawing on our People Science knowledge, which is informed by over a billion data points and a decade of research into high-performing teams.

  • Prepare for conversations: It provides talking points and helps you thoughtfully frame the review discussion, assisting with role-playing to help you feel more confident.

AI Coach will not:

  • Suggest final performance ratings: It helps you draft written feedback, but final ratings are always set by the manager to ensure fairness and accuracy.

  • Automatically write the review: You’ll guide the tool by providing context and prompts. It won’t write a review completely on its own.

  • Replace formal policy/compliance reviews: It does not access company-specific policies and is not a source of compliance or legal advice. Managers must still consult HR/Legal for sensitive matters.

Tip: Prefer a quick visual overview? Check out our AI Coach in Performance Deck, a short summary of how it works and what to expect.

Note: If you’re using the general version of AI Coach, check out the AI Coach user guide.

When should I use AI Coach?


Manager Reviews

  • Save time during review season while maintaining quality

  • Write reviews that are balanced, specific, and grounded in examples

  • Reduce unconscious bias by following People Science frameworks

  • Prepare talking points for performance conversations with your direct reports

Self Reflections

  • Get past writer's block and start your draft with confidence

  • Articulate your impact with specific examples from your feedback

  • Ensure you're highlighting both strengths and growth areas honestly

  • Prepare to discuss your performance confidently with your manager

Your Privacy with AI Coach


  • Your interactions with AI Coach are private. No one else in your organization, including your manager or administrators, can see your interactions or the content you share.

  • Culture Amp retains de-identified customer data securely within the Culture Amp platform to monitor and improve AI Coach over time.

  • This helps us enhance capabilities in high-demand areas and continuously refine the coaching experience.

  • We prioritize safety and fairness in AI, with safeguards actively in place, and we're committed to strengthening them over time.

  • No conversation data is stored outside of the Culture Amp environments

  • No data is logged by 3rd party large language providers, or used to train 3rd party LLM models.


How to Start Using AI Coach in Performance


Once AI Coach in Performance is activated on your account, the way you access it depends on your role. Managers access Coach from the manager review form, while employees access it from their own Self Reflection task during an active Performance Review cycle.

Using Coach in Manager Reviews:

  1. Log in to the Culture Amp platform.

  2. Navigate to Performance > Reviews, then select the Performance Review cycle you’re working on.

  3. Click into view and complete manager reviews under Your team.

  4. Choose the employee whose review you want to complete.

  5. The Coach sidebar will automatically open on the right of screen.

  6. If it is your first time accessing the feature, you will need to click Chat to Coach. You will then see a consent message. Review it and click Yes I consent to continue.

  7. From the Coach sidebar, select a prompt such as:

    • What are the top highlights and opportunities in [direct report’s name] feedback

    • Can we workshop my early thinking

    • Let’s write a first draft

    • Or, type your own question/prompt.

    • You can also paste large amounts of text (such as drafts from external documents) directly into the chat. AI Coach will automatically convert these into snippets/text files for easier processing.

  8. Press Enter or click the paper plane icon to send your message.

    • AI Coach will then generate a first draft for you to review, refine, and finalize.

🎙️ Want to use your voice? You can use your device's dictation feature to speak your messages into the text box. Learn more.

Alternatively, you can click directly into a Manager Review Task from your homepage to reach the same area and access the feature.

Tip: You can click and drag the line that separates the coach sidebar from the manager review form, allowing you to adjust the size.

Using Coach in Self-Reflections:

  1. Log in to the Culture Amp platform.

  2. Navigate to Performance > Reviews, then select the Performance Review cycle you're working on.

  3. Open your own Self-Reflection task by clicking Complete your self-reflection in the You section.

    • You can alternatively access your self-reflection task directly from your home screen or invitation email.

  4. The Coach sidebar will automatically open on the right side of the screen.

  5. The first time you use it, a short onboarding screen explains how Coach can help with this type of writing.

  6. If you have not used Coach before, you will be asked to review and accept a consent message before continuing.

  7. From the Coach sidebar, select a prompt such as:

    • What does my feedback say about me?

    • Help me talk about my impact

    • How can I talk to a challenge I faced?

    • Or, type your own question/prompt.

  8. Press Enter or click the paper plane icon to send your message.

Tip: No matter what you're using Coach for, you can also paste large amounts of text (such as drafts from external documents) directly into the chat. AI Coach will automatically convert these into snippets/text files for easier processing.

Managing AI Coach Conversations


End a Conversation

To finish your conversation, simply type End session or ask AI Coach in Performance to wrap things up.

Tip: You can ask AI Coach in Performance to summarize your conversation to get a quick summary of your notes.

Manage your Chat History

AI Coach in Performance remembers your conversations during active chats and stores your sessions, so you can refer back to previous chats if needed. You can also delete or rename previous conversations through the Chat history.

To access the chat history:

  1. Click into the appropriate Manager Review

  2. Click Options (...) > Chat History

  3. From the list of previous chats, click the options (dots) to delete or rename, or click directly on the title of a chat to access the previous content.

While there’s no export feature yet, you can ask AI Coach to summarize your conversation and then copy the text for safekeeping.

Start a New Conversation

Click the New chat icon at the top right of the Coach panel to begin a new chat at any time.

Using Snippets

To make it easier to bring in external drafts, Coach automatically converts long text into snippets.

  • Word Count: Any pasted text of 251 words or more will automatically convert into a text snippet/file indicator to keep your chat organized.

  • Capacity: You can include up to 5 snippets in a single conversation.

  • Manage: Click the file icon to preview the text or the 'X' to remove it before sending your message.

  1. Press Enter or click the paper plane icon to send.

  2. AI Coach will generate a draft for you to review, refine, and finalize.

Understanding Default Prompts


Coach offers different prompts depending on what you are writing. When drafting a manager review or a self-reflection, prompts help you gather observations and work through your draft. Each of these default prompts serves a slightly different purpose, as explained below.

Manager Review Prompts


What are the top highlights and opportunities in [direct report’s name] feedback?

Use this prompt to quickly generate the top highlights for this direct report, as identified through available sources such as their peer and upward feedback and self-reflection.

Can we workshop my early thinking?

This prompt helps you validate your thoughts before beginning the review. Coach takes your initial observations and compares them with existing feedback and self-reflections to catch any inconsistencies before starting the draft.

Let's write a first draft

When this prompt is used, coach will ask you to share your own observations, and combine these with available performance data as well as best‑practice frameworks (e.g. SBI) to produce a draft. Coach in Perform is instructed to always consult with the manager and seek their input before creating a draft.

Note: If the Manager Review has already been submitted, AI coach will still be available but shift to conversation‑focused prompts instead, helping you prepare for the review discussion with your direct report:

  • Show me some highlights from [name] feedback

  • Help me prepare to chat through this review

Find out more in our Science Behind AI Coach article.

Self-Reflection Prompts

What does my feedback say about me?

Use this prompt to get a summary of the main themes in your feedback from the past 12 months. Coach looks across your peer and upward feedback, Shoutouts, anytime feedback, previous self-reflections, and past manager reviews, then groups what it finds into themes around strengths, impact, challenges, and growth areas. Each theme refers back to the original feedback, so you can check the source. If you'd like to look at a different timeframe, just ask Coach - for example "show me the last six months."

Help me talk about my impact

Use this prompt when you want help describing your contributions. Coach pulls evidence of your impact from across your feedback, so you can move from a general sense of what you've achieved to specific examples you can use in your reflection.

How can I talk to a challenge I faced?

Use this prompt to work through how to write about a difficulty or setback you experienced. Coach helps you describe the challenge clearly and constructively, drawing on relevant feedback where it's available, so you can reflect honestly without losing sight of what you learned from the experience.

Note: If the Self-Reflection has already been submitted, AI coach will still be available but shift to conversation‑focused prompts instead, helping you prepare for the review discussion with your manager:

  • Let's prepare to talk to my manager

  • What if my review doesn't go as expected?

  • Help me ask for new opportunities

Find out more in our Science Behind AI Coach article.

Share Your Feedback


We'd love to hear your thoughts on AI Coach in Performance! Your feedback helps us improve.

  1. After a response from AI Coach in Performance, click the thumbs-up or thumbs-down icon.

  2. Fill out the feedback form and click Send Feedback.


What Data Does Coach in Performance Use?


AI Coach pulls information from different sources in Culture Amp to help you create a well-rounded manager review or self-reflection.

Data Source

Features Available Now

Self reflections

Peer and upward feedback

Shoutouts

Past manager reviews

Anytime Feedback

Tip: Even when data is available, AI Coach will never replace your judgment. Use the insights as a starting point and add your own context.

For a more detailed view of what data is available to AI Coach in Performance from within the 5 listed data sources, please see below.

🟢 Data Now Available

Category

Data Type

Available Now

Performance Cycles: Self Reflections

Free text question responses

Rating question responses

Select question responses

Question text (not just responses)

Submission date

Performance Cycles: Peer & Upward Feedback

Author Name (person who provided feedback)

Free text question responses

Rating question responses

Question text (not just responses)

Question description (if applicable)

Whether questions were marked as 'shareable'

Performance Cycles: Manager Reviews

Free text question responses

Rating question responses

Select question responses

Submission status (complete/incomplete)

Submission date

'Shared' status

Author Name (person who completed the review)

Performance cycle name

Shoutouts

Message text (content of the shoutout)

Tagged colleague (shoutout recipient)

Company values linked to shoutouts

Emoji reactions linked to shoutouts

Source channel (MS Teams or Slack)

Date/time of shoutout

Anytime Feedback

Feedback content

Who gave and received the feedback

Whether the feedback was requested or proactively shared

Visibility settings (Coach only uses feedback already visible to you)

Date of feedback

🟡 Data Not Available

Category

Data Type

Performance Cycles: Self Reflections

Intro text/instructions

Manager prompts

Performance Cycles: Peer & Upward Feedback

Intro text/instructions

Performance Cycles: Manager Review

Collaborator comments

Required/Not Required question status

Shoutouts

Total number of shoutouts given or received

Shoutout responses or acknowledgements from recipients

Anytime Feedback

Anytime feedback that the user does not have permission to view

Goals

No data available

1-on-1's

No data available

Survey data

No data available

Action plans

No data available

General AI Coach & AI Coach in Surveys

No data available

Development Plans & Competencies

No data available

Probation Reviews

No data available. This includes manager review responses and self-reflections completed as part of a Probation Review process.

Note: By default, Coach in Perform will use feedback data submitted in the platform over the past 12 months. You can request a specific timeframe (e.g., last 6 months) to focus on more recent performance if needed, by typing these instructions directly into the chat.

Language Support


AI Coach in Performance is available in multiple languages. For more information on the languages that are supported and the different levels of optimisation, please refer to Supported Languages in Culture Amp.

Best Practices


To get the most out of AI Coach, follow these best practices:

  • Start with a prompt: Use the pre-written prompts to get a solid first draft or to generate key themes.

  • Paste your drafts: If you’ve already started writing elsewhere, paste your thoughts directly into Coach as a snippet to help refine the tone and clarity.

  • Write naturally: Use everyday language, just as if you were chatting with a colleague. AI Coach in Performance adapts to your tone and communication style.

  • Add context: The more specific you are, the more tailored the response will be. AI Coach in Performance only knows what you share so be specific so it can give you useful guidance

  • Experiment: Try different questions or reword your requests to explore different options.

  • Refine the draft: Use the AI-generated content as a starting point, then personalize it with your own insights and specific examples.

  • Use your own judgment: Remember that AI Coach is a tool to assist you, not to replace your expertise. Always review and edit the draft to ensure it reflects your perspective accurately.

Troubleshooting/FAQs


Can AI Coach replace my review writing?

No. AI Coach in Performance provides a draft and ideas, but you’ll always add your own perspective, final ratings and submission.

Can I access AI Coach for all employees?

As a manager, you can access AI Coach for any direct report within an active Performance Review cycle.

How do I know if AI Coach in Performance is activated on my account?

As a manager, you’ll see the Coach button appear in the editable view of your manager review form during a Performance Review cycle. Note that the Coach button will only appear when you open a direct report's manager review, not on the Self Reflection or Peer & Upward Feedback tabs.

Will AI Coach recommend an overall rating or speak to promotion readiness?

No. AI Coach does not replace human judgment. AI Coach in Performance won’t recommend a rating for a report or advise on promotion readiness, but may reference available sources to help you make that decision.

Can AI Coach adjust tone, style, and length?

Yes. AI Coach in Performance can shorten/expand a draft, change tone (e.g. make it more conversational), match a manager’s preference (e.g. write a bullet point review), or align to prior manager review style (when available) for consistency.

What’s the difference between AI Coach in Performance and Suggest Improvements?

Think of AI Coach in Performance as a conversational partner for the entire manager review process - from synthesizing inputs to drafting the review and preparing for the review conversation. Suggest Improvements is a tactical, ‘one-shot’ feature that helps polish a piece of manager‑written text for clarity, balance, and actionability.


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