Editor's take: Like many major technology companies attempting to turn "dumb" AI models into profitable tools, Amazon is reportedly engaging in questionable accounting practices. According to internal sources, the company is now actively encouraging employees to inflate usage metrics to sustain momentum in its AI business efforts.
Three Amazon employees told The Financial Times that the company's internal AI usage metrics are likely inflated. According to the sources, employees are using MeshClaw, Amazon's internal AI platform, to perform non-essential tasks in an effort to make a stronger impression on managers.
The OpenClaw-inspired MeshClaw tool gives "Amazonians" a way to run local AI agents on their own hardware. Amazon is currently deploying the technology more broadly, enabling users to automate a larger portion of their daily work.
"Some employees are participating in an internal "tokenmaxxing" competition to consume as many AI tokens as possible"
– Doug Colkitt (@0xdoug) May 12, 2026
Some employees are indeed doing just that, the sources said. They are participating in an internal "tokenmaxxing" competition to consume as many AI tokens as possible, climb company-wide leaderboards, and impress their managers.
Amazon said that employees' AI token usage will not be used to evaluate individual performance. However, the sources claimed that managers are still informally taking tokenmaxxing activity into account. Some managers are reportedly tracking AI usage unofficially, while employees continue expanding MeshClaw-based automation. One source said these "perverse incentives" are fueling increasingly competitive behavior among staff.
One source said, "there is just so much pressure to use these tools. Some people are using MeshClaw simply to maximize their token usage."
MeshClaw can automate repetitive tasks and interact with third-party applications, including Slack and email clients. Amazon has officially stated that thousands of employees are now using the tool on a daily basis. However, the company is pushing for AI deployment that is safe, secure, and responsible – at least when it comes to its own customers.
Amazon had initially shared team-wide statistics on MeshClaw usage but has since restricted access to internal staff only. The company's official policy instructs managers not to consider AI usage when evaluating employee performance, though FT sources suggest a different reality.
Beyond fueling a "perverse" race to climb internal tokenmaxxing leaderboards, MeshClaw's growing adoption is also raising security concerns. Some employees are reportedly uneasy about using generative AI to automate broad portions of their work, particularly due to concerns about hallucinations or factual errors.
One FT source said, "the default security posture terrifies me," and they are "not about to let it go off and just do its own thing."