‘We're at the stage where many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams,’ says CPO
Meta is cutting 10 per cent of its global workforce this week as part of a broad organizational overhaul designed to accelerate the company's transition to AI-driven operations, according to an internal memo from CPO Janelle Gale seen by Reuters.
The layoffs, slated for May 20, are accompanied by the transfer of 7,000 employees to new AI-focused initiatives and the elimination of managerial roles across the company.
In total, the layoffs and transfers will affect roughly 20 per cent of Meta's workforce. Headcount stood at 77,986 employees at the end of March, according to company filings.
Meta has also closed an additional 6,000 open roles as part of the process, Gale said in an earlier memo cited by Reuters.
"As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new org structures," she said. "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."
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the plan, said Reuters.
New AI units absorb employees
Employees are being moved — referred to internally as being "drafted" — to several new initiatives, including 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 staff, according to Reuters. A third destination, Central Analytics, will focus on measuring productivity and analytics for agent development. Details on a fourth initiative, Enterprise Solutions, are expected to be shared soon, according to Gale.
Some transfers have already taken place, while other employees will be notified Wednesday, said Reuters. Employees in North America have been instructed to work from home that day.
Not surprisingly, employees shared their frustrations online:
"You wake up, get your termination email on your phone," wrote a Reddit user called manofmystery. "If you can log in at all, your access is limited to basic communication tools with restricted capabilities, and intranet websites with termination-related info. You're locked out of your encrypted laptop."
Revolt from Meta employees
The restructuring has prompted significant internal pushback, according to Reuters. More than 1,000 employees have signed a petition objecting to the installation of mouse-tracking software, which Meta is using to train AI models to replicate how humans interact with computers.
Employees have also openly criticized executives on Meta's internal communications platform, Workplace, for dismissing privacy concerns and for remaining silent about layoff plans for more than a month after Reuters first reported them.
During that period, many staff responded to executives' posts with images of elephants — a reference to the "elephant in the room" — according to examples seen by Reuters.
A Chinese court recently ruled that employers cannot demote or dismiss staff solely to replace them with artificial intelligence.
Strong financials amid cuts
The restructuring comes as Meta reports robust revenue performance. For the first quarter, it revealed total revenue of $56.3 billion.
The company is projecting second-quarter 2026 total revenue of between $58 billion and $61 billion, with foreign currency representing a roughly 2 per cent tailwind to year-over-year growth based on current exchange rates, according to CFO outlook commentary.
"We had a milestone quarter with strong momentum across our apps and the release of our first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs," said founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "We're on track to deliver personal superintelligence to billions of people."
