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Meta will judge employees by “AI driven impact” in 2026, which basically means your performance review could soon be impressed by how well you partner with AI. Meanwhile, Spotify now gives AI audiobook recaps, finally letting you disappear for a month and still pretend you know exactly what is going on in the plot. And over in fintech land, Visa is building AI powered shopping rails, so get ready for your AI to book your flights, your hotels, and maybe even your excuses for overspending.

Here’s what’s shaping the future of AI today.

In today’s AI Pulse

• 🤖 Meta evaluates employees by AI impact

• 🎧 Spotify launches AI audiobook recap feature

• 💳 Visa builds AI commerce infrastructure pilot

• ⚡ In AI Today – Quick Hits

AI is reshaping your mind and your mindset, rotting your focus while rewriting how you learn, think, and survive in the new intelligent age.

🤖 Meta to Judge Employees by AI‑Driven Impact Starting in 2026

🧠The Pulse

Meta will begin evaluating employees based on their “AI‑driven impact” from 2026. The internal memo signals a shift toward an AI‑native culture: staff will be rewarded for using AI to boost productivity, and Meta is rolling out an AI Performance Assistant for reviews.

📌The Download

• Meta’s head of people, Janelle Gale, told employees that “AI‑driven impact” will become a core expectation in performance reviews starting in 2026.

• In 2025, formal reviews won’t include AI usage metrics, but workers are encouraged to highlight AI‑powered achievements in self‑assessments.

• Meta is launching an AI Performance Assistant to help employees draft reviews using internal tools and third‑party models like Google’s Gemini.

• The policy reflects a broader push at Microsoft, Google and Amazon to make AI adoption mandatory.

• Meta previously introduced the “Level Up” game to incentivise AI usage and allows job applicants to use AI during coding interviews.

• The shift underscores Big Tech’s belief that AI proficiency is key to future competitiveness.

💡What This Means for You

Expect AI literacy to become a critical job skill. Whether you work at Meta or elsewhere, leveraging AI to drive results will likely influence promotions and hiring. Employees should upskill now and explore AI tools to stay competitive in a workplace that increasingly rewards AI‑enabled productivity.

🎧 Spotify Adds AI Recaps for Audiobooks

🧠The Pulse

Spotify has introduced AI Recaps for audiobooks — short summaries generated after you’ve listened to about 15–20 minutes. The feature helps you rejoin a story instantly, without replaying chapters or trying to recall forgotten plot points, giving audiobook listeners a smoother and more flexible experience.

📌The Download

• Spotify’s new AI Recaps act like a “previously on…” segment for audiobooks, summarizing what you’ve already heard so you can return days or weeks later without losing context.

• The feature appears automatically once you’ve passed the 15–20-minute mark and continues updating as you progress.

• It’s currently in beta on iOS for a limited selection of English-language titles, allowing Spotify to refine quality before expanding widely.

• Spotify emphasizes that it does not use audiobook content to train its large language models; the summaries are generated solely for listening continuity.

• Authors and publishers were consulted during development, and they retain the ability to opt out, ensuring control over how their works interact with AI.

• Ultimately, Spotify wants Recaps to boost completion rates by making audiobooks easier to re-engage with during busy or inconsistent listening schedules.

💡What This Means for You

AI Recaps make audiobook listening more forgiving. If you take long breaks, multitask, or hop between titles, you can now resume instantly without confusion. It’s a lightweight AI assist that enhances comprehension without altering narration — perfect for listeners who want convenience without sacrificing the original storytelling experience.

💳 Visa Builds AI Commerce Infrastructure for Asia‑Pacific Pilot

🧠The Pulse

Visa unveiled an Intelligent Commerce platform that lays the groundwork for AI‑mediated shopping. Announced on 14 Nov 2025, the infrastructure will be piloted in Asia Pacific in early 2026 to handle an explosion of AI‑generated traffic and ensure merchants can distinguish legitimate AI shoppers from bots.

📌The Download

• Visa’s Intelligent Commerce platform addresses a 4,700 % surge in AI‑driven visits to retail websites and aims to prevent fraud by authenticating AI agents.

• The platform uses a Trusted Agent Protocol with cryptographic signatures to verify that AI assistants have valid consumer authorisation.

• It integrates tokenisation, authentication and transaction signals into a low‑code framework, making it easier for merchants to adopt.

• Visa’s pilot will run in Asia Pacific, leveraging the region’s leadership in mobile payments and digital‑first behaviour.

• Partners include Ant International, LG Uplus, Microsoft, Perplexity, Stripe and Tencent, showing the broad ecosystem needed for AI‑mediated commerce.

• Visa says merchants must prepare their payment systems before the pilot’s 2026 start; those who adopt early may gain a competitive edge.

💡What This Means for You

AI shopping assistants are coming. Visa’s infrastructure means that in the near future, you might tell an AI to book a trip and watch it securely transact across multiple services. Merchants and developers should start integrating AI‑friendly payment APIs to stay ahead of agentic commerce.

IN AI TODAY - QUICK HITS

⚡Quick Hits (60‑Second News Sprint)

Short, sharp updates to keep your finger on the AI pulse.

• Databricks Co-Founder Urges Open-Source Strategy to Protect U.S. AI Leadership

  Databricks co-founder Andy Konwinski warned that the U.S. could lose its AI edge because major breakthroughs remain locked inside proprietary labs. He contrasted this with China’s open-source momentum from DeepSeek and Alibaba, arguing that openness—like the original Transformer paper—is what drives scientific progress. Without wider open-source collaboration, he says U.S. innovation may fall behind.

• Anthropic Disrupts AI-Driven Cyberattack Led by Chinese Hackers

  Anthropic reported stopping a large-scale cyber-espionage campaign where Chinese state-linked hackers used Claude Code to automate 80–90% of an attack on 30 targets. The AI wrote exploits, harvested credentials, and performed reconnaissance before Anthropic banned the accounts and strengthened detection. The incident highlights a new era of AI-powered cyberattacks and the urgent need for stronger safeguards.

🙌 About Us

AI Pulse is the official newsletter by AIGPE™. Our mission: help professionals master Lean, Six Sigma, Project Management, and now AI, so you can deliver breakthroughs that stick.

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Team AIGPE®