Meta’s Plan to Replace Staff With AI Falls Apart Amid Internal Backlash

Meta’s leadership drew up an aggressive internal plan earlier this year to reshape its workforce around artificial intelligence, according to internal documents.

The initiative, developed at a January leadership retreat, envisioned replacing much of the day to-day work handled by employees with AI systems, while smaller teams of human staff would oversee the technology. In planning sessions, executives considered cutting the size of many teams by as much as 60%, with layoffs to be carried out in two phases one in May and another later in the year.

Backlash Forces a Reversal

The first round of cuts went ahead in May, reducing headcount by about 10%. However, mounting employee anger, falling morale, and internal concerns that AI tools weren’t delivering expected productivity gains led leadership to cancel plans for the second wave. Company leadership later told staff to expect no further company wide layoffs this year, while shifting its public messaging to emphasize a people focused approach to AI development rather than workforce replacement.

Company Response

The company confirmed the project existed but disputed some details, stating that the plan was never meant to cut 60% of its entire workforce and that many employees were redeployed to new AI-focused teams rather than let go.