Meta moves 7,000 employees to AI roles ahead of layoffs
What's the story
Meta is gearing up for a major layoff round tomorrow, May 20. The tech giant is expected to cut around 8,000 jobs or about 10% of its global workforce. A leaked internal memo has now revealed that Meta could also be moving some employees into new artificial intelligence (AI) teams. According to Reuters, the company sent out the memo on Monday announcing both layoffs and organizational restructuring.
Leadership statement
Layoffs and AI team restructuring
Meta's Chief People Officer, Janelle Gale, has confirmed the company's plan to cut back on managerial roles. She also revealed that 7,000 employees will be moved into new teams focused on AI. "As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new org structures," Gale said in the memo.
Organizational shift
Meta's organizational restructuring efforts
Gale further explained that the restructuring is aimed at making organizations flatter with smaller teams or pods/cohorts. This way, they can operate faster and with more ownership. The move comes as part of a larger overhaul at Meta, which is increasing its investment in AI. The company has already closed around 6,000 open roles since announcing layoffs last month and may cut another 8,000 jobs soon.
Team developments
New AI teams formed at Meta
The new teams that employees are being moved to include Applied AI Engineering and Agent Transformation Accelerator XFN. These were announced by CTO Andrew Bosworth as part of Meta's 'AI for Work' efforts. The teams are working on developing AI agents capable of performing tasks currently done by humans. Some employees will also be moved to Central Analytics, which focuses on measuring productivity and analytics for agent development.
AI expansion
Meta's push for agentic tools and avatars
In April, Meta announced plans to invest $125 billion-$145 billion in capital expenditure for 2026, with a focus on AI. The company has also introduced new mouse-tracking software to monitor employees' movements and keystrokes for training AI. Despite around 1,000 Meta employees signing a petition against this measure, the company continues to push for more agentic tools.