Meta shifts 7,000 workers into AI roles as layoffs, manager cuts loom
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American Shipper
Post Date
05/21/2026
Meta is accelerating its artificial intelligence strategy with a broad workforce overhaul that includes layoffs, management cuts and employee transfers into AI-focused teams Meta is preparing a sweeping workforce overhaul tied to its aggressive artificial intelligence push, including plans to move thousands of employees into AI-focused roles while cutting managers and laying off workers this week.
The Facebook parent plans to lay off roughly 10% of its workforce Wednesday as part of a broader restructuring tied to CEO Mark Zuckerberg? effort to remake the company around AI tools and autonomous agents, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters. In the memo circulated Monday, Meta Chief People Officer Janelle Gale said the company plans to transfer roughly 7,000 employees into new AI initiatives while eliminating layers of management and flattening organizational structures.
The shake-up, along with previous transfers and role eliminations, will ultimately affect about 20% of Meta? workforce, according to the memo. The company had nearly 78,000 employees as of the of March, according to securities filings. The overhaul comes as Meta pours billions into AI infrastructure and tools amid intensifying competition with OpenAI, Google and Microsoft. The company increasingly wants AI agents to perform tasks now handled by human employees internally, according to Reuters.
"As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new org structures," Gale wrote in the memo. "Many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership." Some of the employees being reassigned ?a process workers reportedly refer to as being "drafted" ?are moving into teams like Applied AI Engineering and Agent Transformation Accelerator, groups focused on building AI tems capable of autonomously performing workplace functions. Meta has also reportedly closed roughly 6,000 job postings during the restructuring process ?changes which have triggered growing backlash inside the company.
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