Meta cuts 10% of workforce while moving 7,000 employees to AI-focused roles in major restructuring

Exclusive: Meta lays out plans for May 20 restructuring in internal document

NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O), opens new tab detailed its layoff plans for this week in a memo shared with employees on Monday, saying cuts to 10% of its workforce globally would be accompanied by a new round of organizational changes aimed at improving the company's AI workflows. The Facebook owner is planning to lay ⁠off 10% of its employees on Wednesday, with notifications going out in three batches globally at 4 a.m. local time, according to the memo, seen by Reuters. In the memo, Meta's head of human resources, Janelle Gale, told employees that "many leaders will announce org changes" in coordination with the layoffs. As part of that, the company plans to move 7,000 employees ⁠to new initiatives related to AI workflows and to eliminate managerial roles, she said. "As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new ⁠org structures. 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," she wrote. "We believe this will make us more productive and make ⁠the work more rewarding," she said. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the plan. Reporting by Katie Paul in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Meta Reassigns 7,000 Employees to Focus on A.I.

The company announced the changes two days before it plans to lay off 10 percent of its work force, or about 8,000 employees. Meta told employees on Monday that it was reassigning 7,000 workers to focus on new initiatives around artificial intelligence, the latest change in a company transformation spurred by the powerful technology. Employees will be moved to four new organizations focused on building new A.I. tools and apps, Janelle Gale, Meta's head of human resources, said in an internal memo. The organizations will use "A.I. native design structures" and have fewer managers per employee than other parts of the company, she said, adding that company leaders will send details about the new roles on Wednesday. The restructuring "will make us more productive and make ⁠the work more rewarding," Ms. Gale wrote. Meta declined to comment further on the changes. The reassignments were announced before layoffs of roughly 8,000 employees, or 10 percent of Meta's work force, on Wednesday. The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, employed more than 78,000 people at the end of 2025. It had told workers late last month that some of their jobs would be cut as part of Meta's effort to be more efficient as it invested heavily in A.I. development. Across the tech industry, companies have been slimming down and refocusing their work forces in the age of A.I. Last week, the software giant Cisco announced it was laying off 4,000 employees as it dedicated more resources to A.I. Microsoft, Block and Coinbase also recently announced reorganizations as a result of the technology. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, has bet the future of his company on A.I. Meta is investing in data centers to power the technology and keep up with A.I. rivals like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. In a call with investors in January, Mr. Zuckerberg said the company planned to spend $115 billion to $135 billion this year, much of it on developing new A.I. Meanwhile, Meta has dialed back its work on the immersive world of the metaverse, a previous big bet, and has laid off some employees in that area. The company has pushed employees to use A.I. in their daily work and started including A.I. use in many employees' performance reviews. Last month, Meta said it not only planned to cut 10 percent of its work force but would also close 6,000 open roles. Workers have been on edge. This month, a new policy on Meta's training of A.I. tools with employee data created outrage over privacy concerns. The company has also been reassigning employees to a new A.I. organization in the lead-up to the layoffs. In her memo, Ms. Gale also mentioned Wednesday's layoffs. She asked employees to work remotely that day and said emails about layoffs would be sent at 4 a.m. local time. Employees in the United States will receive 16 weeks of severance pay, along with two extra weeks for every year they worked at Meta. "We know days like this are extremely hard, and we appreciate you showing up for each other," Ms. Gale said. Mike Isaac contributed reporting from Oakland, Calif.

Meta lays out plans for May 20 layoffs, restructuring, internal document says - The Economic Times

In the document, ⁠the Facebook owner's head of human resources also told employees that "many leaders will announce org changes" in coordination with the layoffs.Meta is planning to carry out its layoffs of 10% of its employees in ⁠three ⁠batches globally on Wednesday, with notifications going out at 4 a.m. local time, according to an internal document ⁠seen by Reuters on Monday. In the document, ⁠the Facebook owner's head of human resources also told employees that "many leaders will announce org changes" in coordination with the layoffs. As part of that, the company plans to move 7,000 ⁠employees to new initiatives related to AI workflows and to eliminate managerial roles, she said.

Meta employees told to work remotely Wednesday as company prepares to slash 10% of workforce: report

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has reportedly told its North American employees to work from home Wednesday - when it will lay off 10% of its global workforce as part of a major restructuring. The companywide bloodbath will take place in three waves, with impacted workers learning their fate by email at 4 a.m. local time in their region, according to an internal document obtained by Reuters. Meta's human resources chief Janelle Gale said in the document that executives "will announce org changes" alongside the layoffs. About 7,000 employees are expected to shift to new roles at the Facebook and Instagram parent. "As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new ⁠org structures," Gale was quoted as saying by Reuters. "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. "We believe this will make us more productive and make ⁠the work more rewarding," she added. The company is slashing managerial roles as part of the reorganization as it relies more heavily on artificial intelligence tools to get work done. Ahead of the layoffs, one employee told the San Francisco Standard that the worker's office has been in "chaos" as employees fear they'll be axed. "I am generally dissatisfied with leadership and angry," the unnamed employee told the publication. "This is as anxious and stressed as I have ever been at a job." Meta had nearly 79,000 employees at the start of the year - meaning that the upcoming round of layoffs will rank among the largest in the social media giant's history. The company previously said that laid-off workers would receive severance packages including at least 16 weeks of base pay, plus another two weeks for each additional year of employment at the company. They'll also get healthcare and career support benefits. In a memo last month, Gale said the cuts were part of an effort to "run the company more efficiently" as the company spends heavily on AI development. Meta has said its capital expenditures will reach as high as $145 billion in this year alone, driven in part by its buildout of new AI data centers and higher memory prices. Meta did not immediately return a request for comment. The company is expected to conduct more layoffs in the second half of the year, though the exact timing and scope of those cuts has yet to be decided. Zuckerberg has sought to "flatten" Meta's management ranks in recent years. He slashed more than 20,000 jobs in 2022 and 2023 as part of what was infamously dubbed a "year of efficiency" at the company. The layoffs come amid ongoing layoffs blamed on AI, especially in the tech sector. The first three months of 2026 saw 52,050 tech layoffs -- a 40% jump from the same period last year, according to executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. In March, AI led the list of causes employers listed for tech layoffs -- accounting for 15,341 of the firings, or 25% of the total. A month earlier, the figure was 10%.