Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg conceded in an internal memo on June 12 that the company made mistakes in its AI-driven workforce transformation and expects to make more as changes continue [1, 2]. He wrote, "Given the complexity of these changes, we’ve made mistakes and will almost certainly make more," and added, "I don’t want to overpromise because the world is changing in ways that are out of our control" [1].
In May 2026, Meta laid off 10% of its global workforce in a major restructuring, while transferring about 7,000 employees to AI-related initiatives such as model training and workflow development [s1,s2,s4-s12]. Zuckerberg highlighted efforts to provide stability amid these ongoing changes, saying, "We will try to provide as much stability as possible in terms of organization changes going forward" [2].
Zuckerberg also promised no further major company-wide layoffs for the remainder of 2026, stating, "Meta does not expect more company-wide layoffs in 2026" [1]. The company plans to create new roles for those reassigned to AI work and acknowledged that if mistakes occur, some employees may be transferred back [1].
Meta’s Applied AI Engineering unit reportedly had a flat management structure with up to a 50:1 ratio of individual contributors to managers, which has been cited as a scaling challenge leading to reduced oversight [1, 2]. Emily Dalton Smith, head of product for Meta’s AI for work transformation unit, announced her departure on June 17 [3].
In December 2025, Meta acquired Singapore-based AI startup Manus for about $2 billion, strengthening its AI capabilities [3]. In April 2026, Meta raised its annual capital spending forecast to $125 billion to $145 billion amid its AI investments [1, 2].
Meta will host a large-scale hackathon in July 2026 to promote cross-team collaboration on AI model development and accelerate innovation [1, 2, 4]. It also plans increased budgets for team-building activities and corporate events to support workforce morale during the transition [1, 2, 4, 5].
