Amazon employees are gaming internal AI usage metrics by automating non-essential tasks to boost their token consumption statistics.

The company recently deployed MeshClaw, an internal AI agent tool that connects to workplace software and performs tasks autonomously. Three sources familiar with the matter said some staff are using it to generate artificial AI activity rather than genuine productivity gains.

The behavior stems from pressure following Amazon's mandate that more than 80 percent of developers use AI tools each week. The company began tracking AI token consumption on internal leaderboards earlier this year.

"There is just so much pressure to use these tools," one Amazon employee told the Financial Times. "Some people are just using MeshClaw to maximize their token usage."

Gaming the system

Amazon has stated the token statistics won't factor into performance evaluations. However, multiple employees said they believe managers monitor the data despite official guidance discouraging its use for performance measurement.

"Managers are looking at it," said another current employee. "When they track usage it creates perverse incentives and some people are very competitive about it."

The company recently restricted access to team-wide AI usage statistics so only individual employees and their managers can view the data.

Meta employees have engaged in similar "tokenmaxxing" behavior to improve their standings on internal leaderboards, according to the report.

MeshClaw capabilities and concerns

MeshClaw was inspired by OpenClaw, which went viral in February for allowing users to run AI agents locally on their hardware. Amazon's version can initiate code deployments, triage emails, and interact with applications like Slack.

More than three dozen Amazon employees developed the tool. Internal documentation describes it as software that "dreams overnight to consolidate what it learned, monitors your deployments while you're in meetings, and triages your email before you wake up."

Several employees expressed security concerns about granting AI agents permission to act autonomously on their behalf.

"The default security posture terrifies me," one employee said. "I'm not about to let it go off and just do its own thing."

Amazon said MeshClaw enables "thousands of Amazonians to automate repetitive tasks each day" as part of efforts to help teams experiment with AI tools. The company is expected to spend $200 billion in capital expenditure this year, primarily on AI and data center infrastructure.