Meta has detailed its layoff plans for this week, announcing cuts to its workforce globally alongside a fresh round of organizational changes aimed at improving AI workflows.
The Facebook owner is planning to lay off 10 percent of its employees on Wednesday, with additional cuts slated for later this year. In a memo seen by Reuters, Meta Chief People Officer Janelle Gale told employees the company plans to move 7,000 employees to new initiatives related to AI workflows and to eliminate managerial roles.
"Many leaders will announce org changes," she said. "As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new org structures. We're now at the stage where many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership."
The changes are part of a far-reaching overhaul planned at Meta this year, as the company surges its AI investments to center AI agents in both its product offerings and its approach to work internally. They reflect a broader pattern of AI-linked job cuts among major U.S. companies this year, particularly in the tech sector.
In total, the layoffs and transfers will hit about 20 percent of the company's workforce. Some transfers have already happened, while other employees will be notified on Wednesday. Employees in North America were told to work from home on Wednesday. Meta has also closed an additional 6,000 open roles as part of the process. Headcount at the social media giant was 77,986 employees at the end of March.
New initiatives where employees are being transferred include Applied AI Engineering (AAI) and Agent Transformation Accelerator (ATA) XFN, two teams previously announced by CTO Andrew Bosworth as part of Meta's "AI for Work" efforts. Both are aimed at developing AI agents that can autonomously carry out tasks currently performed by human staffers.
The changes have prompted a revolt from Meta employees, who have been protesting with flyers at the company's offices and in angry posts on its internal communications platform, Workplace. More than 1,000 employees have signed a petition decrying the installation of mouse-tracking software for use in training Meta's artificial intelligence models.