Meta is preparing for one of its biggest workplace shake-ups in recent years, with thousands of employees set to lose their jobs or move into new artificial intelligence-focused teams as the company doubles down on AI, according to Reuters.
An internal memo shared with employees on Monday laid out fresh details about the restructuring set to begin on May 20, including plans to slash 10% of Meta’s workforce. The document, seen by Reuters, revealed that the Facebook parent company plans to cut jobs globally while also reorganising large parts of the company around AI work.
The changes are expected to affect nearly one in every five employees at Meta.
Meta plans major layoffs – Thousands to be affected
According to the memo, written by Meta’s Chief People Officer Janelle Gale, the company plans to move around 7,000 employees into new AI-related initiatives. At the same time, Meta will also remove several managerial roles as part of the restructuring.
Gale told employees that many team leaders would soon announce additional organisational changes.
“As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new org structures,” she wrote. “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.”
Meta has not publicly commented on the internal plans.
Meta Layoffs to begin this week
Reuters had earlier reported that Meta was planning to cut around 10% of its workforce starting Wednesday, with more deep layoffs expected later this year. Employees in North America were instructed to work from home on Wednesday as the company prepares for the changes.
The company has already shut down another 6,000 open job positions during the process, according to an earlier memo from Gale. At the end of March, Meta had 77,986 employees worldwide, company filings showed.
Employee anger spills across offices
Workers have reportedly been protesting inside company offices using flyers and angry posts on Workplace, Meta’s internal communication platform. One of the biggest concerns among staff involves mouse-tracking software that Meta is reportedly using to help train AI systems to mimic how humans use computers.
More than 1,000 employees have signed a petition criticising the technology and raising privacy concerns.
Some workers have also openly challenged company leaders for staying silent about the layoffs for weeks after Reuters first reported the plans.
Meta CFO Susan Li confirms workforce cuts as company pours billions into AI
Meta Chief Financial Officer Susan Li had signalled back in April that the company was preparing to cut jobs as it increased spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Speaking during Meta’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call on April 29, Li said the company planned to shrink its workforce in May as part of a broader push to operate more efficiently while investing heavily in AI.
“As we grow our infrastructure spend, we remain committed to operating efficiently, and we recently shared internally that we plan to reduce the size of our employee base in May,” Li said during the call.
She added, “We believe a leaner operating model will allow us to move more quickly while also helping to offset the substantial investments we are making.”
At the same earnings call, Meta raised its projected capital spending for 2026 to between USD 125 billion and USD 145 billion, with much of the money set aside for AI data centres, servers, and related infrastructure. The company had around 77,900 employees at the end of the first quarter.
Li also said the fast pace of AI development has made it difficult for the company to predict what its ideal workforce size should look like in the future.
“We don’t really know what the optimal size of the company will be in the future,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of change right now, with AI capabilities advancing rapidly.” The restructuring is part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ongoing push to streamline operations while shifting more resources toward AI projects.
AI overhaul driving the changes
The restructuring is part of Meta’s larger push to centre artificial intelligence across its products and internal work systems. The company is heavily investing in AI agents, software systems designed to perform tasks on their own without direct human involvement.
Several employees are being shifted into teams connected to those efforts. Among the new groups mentioned in the memo are Applied AI Engineering and Agent Transformation Accelerator XFN, initiatives earlier introduced by Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth. These teams are focused on building AI agents that can independently carry out tasks currently handled by human workers.
Another group called Central Analytics will work on measuring productivity and analysing how these AI systems perform. Gale also said more details about a separate initiative called Enterprise Solutions would be shared later.