Meta Details May 20 Restructuring Plan in Internal Document: Sources

Meta to Lay Off 10% of Employees This Week Amid AI Overhaul

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has detailed its plans for layoffs and restructuring in a memo shared with employees on Monday. The company plans to cut 10% of its workforce globally on Wednesday, with additional deep cuts slated to come later this year, as reported by Reuters previously.

According to the memo, Meta Chief People Officer Janelle Gale told employees that the company plans to move approximately 7,000 employees to new initiatives related to AI workflows and eliminate managerial roles. Additionally, "many leaders will announce org changes," she stated. The memo also mentioned that organizational leaders have incorporated AI native design principles into their new structures, allowing for a flatter structure with smaller teams 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 in a bid to center AI agents in both its product offerings and its approach to work internally. The layoffs and transfers will hit about 20% of the company's workforce, with some transfers already having taken place and others set to be notified on Wednesday. Employees in North America were told to work from home on Wednesday.

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Comparison of Layoffs and Closures

Headcount at the social media giant was 77,986 employees at the end of March, according to company filings.

The new initiatives where employees are being transferred include Applied AI Engineering (AAI), Agent Transformation Accelerator (ATA) XFN, and Central Analytics, all of which are aimed at developing AI agents that can autonomously carry out tasks currently performed by human staffers. Details on another new initiative called Enterprise Solutions would be shared soon, according to Gale.

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The changes have prompted a revolt from Meta employees, who have been protesting the moves 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 to help them replicate how humans interact with computers. Others have been openly tangling with company leaders, criticizing executives for dismissing privacy concerns about the mouse-tracking tech and for staying silent about layoff plans for more than a month after Reuters first reported them.