Lattice announced official employee records for AI 'digital workers'
Lattice said it would give AI agents personnel files inside its HR platform — onboarded, trained, assigned goals, performance metrics, system access and a manager. No price was named, but on a platform billed per seat and per employee record, an AI agent with an employee record is a billable seat. The plan was withdrawn three days later.
Lattice's platform billed per person per month for human employee records only. No AI agent, digital worker or non-human employee construct existed on any pricing or product surface.
A blog post titled 'Today, Lattice Makes History and Leads the Way in Responsible Employment of AI' announcing that AI digital workers would be 'securely onboarded, trained, and assigned goals, performance metrics, appropriate systems access, and even a manager' and represented in the org chart. No rate published.
On 9 July 2024 Lattice CEO Sarah Franklin published “Today, Lattice Makes History and Leads the Way in Responsible Employment of AI”, announcing that AI agents would get official employee records inside Lattice — onboarded, trained, given goals and performance metrics, granted systems access, assigned a manager, and shown in the org chart alongside people.
For a pricing corpus this is the most literal AI-metering proposal in the category. Lattice sells per seat, and its seat is an employee record. Giving a digital worker an employee record does not merely represent the agent in the product — it puts the agent on the same meter as the humans. The announcement named no rate, which is precisely what makes it interesting: the price was implied by the data model rather than stated on a card.
The reaction was immediate and overwhelmingly negative, and it happened almost entirely on LinkedIn and in the HR trade press rather than on developer forums. Hacker News gave the announcement 5 points and 1 comment. Three days later Lattice reversed.
Lattice announced that AI agents would be onboarded into the platform with personnel files, goals, performance metrics, systems access, a manager and a place in the org chart. No rate was named — but on a platform billed per seat, where the seat is an employee record, an AI agent with an employee record is a billable seat.