Meta moves 7,000 workers into AI roles ahead of job cuts

[SAN FRANCISCO] Meta Platforms is reassigning 7,000 workers to new jobs related to artificial intelligence, according to an internal memo, part of a broad corporate restructuring that includes planned staff reductions later this week.

Employees will move into one of several new groups focused on AI-related products, including agents and apps, according to the memo Monday from chief people officer Janelle Gale, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. The new corporate structure will be “flatter” and mean “smaller teams,” Gale wrote.

“We believe this will make us more productive and make the work more rewarding,” she added.

Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has made AI the social media company’s top priority, redirecting teams and resources to focus more closely on the burgeoning technology. The push to improve AI has become central to Meta’s consumer products and Zuckerberg’s corporate vision.

Meta is spending hundreds of billions on the talent and infrastructure needed to develop large language models that power chatbots and other consumer features, part of an effort to compete with rivals like Alphabet’s Google and OpenAI.

Meta has also encouraged engineers to use AI agents to help with coding and other tasks, and Zuckerberg is even developing an AI-powered version of himself to interact with employees.

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Meta previously told staff that it will cut 10 per cent of workers on Wednesday – or roughly 8,000 people – as part of an effort to improve efficiency and “offset” its other investments in AI. Employees in North America were encouraged to work from home Wednesday, the memo said. BLOOMBERG