Meta shifts 7,000 employees into four new AI units ahead of mass layoffs

Meta Platforms Inc. is reportedly reassigning about 7,000 workers into new artificial intelligence roles as part of the broader restructuring that brings layoffs of roughly 8,000 staff into effect on Wednesday.

The reassignments were disclosed in a memo on Monday from Meta Chief People Officer Janelle Gale that was reviewed by Bloomberg, which first reported the move. Affected staff will be consolidated into four new organizations focused on AI products, including agents and apps, with Gale telling employees the new corporate structure will be “flatter” with “smaller teams.”

The four new groups are reported to include Applied AI Engineering, Agent Transformation Accelerator XFN, Central Analytics and Enterprise Solutions, the first two forming part of an “AI for Work” push, while Central Analytics is tasked with tracking the productivity and performance of Meta’s internal AI agents. The units will use “AI native design structures” with fewer management layers per employee than the rest of the company, per the memo.

The reshuffle sits alongside the job cuts confirmed in April, which take effect tomorrow, May 20 that reduce Meta’s headcount by approximately 10%. About 6,000 open positions are also being eliminated. Notifications to affected employees were due to land early Wednesday morning, though a source told NBC News timing could vary by region. U.S. workers being let go will receive 16 weeks of base pay plus two weeks for each year of service and 18 months of health coverage.

Meta’s headcount stood at 77,986 at the end of March, off a 2022 high of 86,482.

The latest round is the deepest cut Meta has made since 2022 and 2023, when it shed more than 21,000 jobs in what Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg called the “year of efficiency.” It also comes on top of two smaller 2026 rounds: about 1,500 Reality Labs staff in January and roughly 700 more in March across Reality Labs, Facebook, recruiting, sales and global operations.

The cash freed up by the cuts is heading straight into AI. Meta now expects to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion on capital projects this year, lifted from a $115 billion to $135 billion range. Data centers, custom silicon and other AI infrastructure account for most of the bill. Meta has been trailing well behind OpenAI Group PBC, Google LLC and Anthropic PBC in the generative AI race.

Chief Financial Officer Susan Li framed the restructuring on Meta’s first-quarter earnings call last month, saying the company is “very focused on leveraging AI tools to substantially increase our productivity” and is “seeing that reflected in the accelerating output from our engineers.”

Tech-sector layoffs have hit approximately 134,000 people in 2026 to date, according to data from Trueup’s Tech Layoffs Tracker.

Photo: Meta