Meta Pulls Back on AI Job Cuts as Productivity Gains Fall Short

Meta Pulls Back on AI Job Cuts as Productivity Gains Fall Short

Meta’s ambitious plan to use artificial intelligence to reshape its workforce has hit an unexpected setback after the company pulled back from a second round of planned job cuts.

The plan, known internally as Project OT, was designed to make Meta more “AI native,” with artificial intelligence taking over much of the routine work currently handled by employees. Some of the scenarios considered by executives involved reducing the size of certain teams by as much as 60%.

Meta eventually went ahead with a 10% workforce reduction in May. However, a second restructuring wave that was expected to take place in November was called off shortly before the first round of layoffs began.

According to a Reuters investigation based on internal documents, recordings and interviews with people familiar with the company, the decision came as Meta was facing growing concerns about whether its AI systems were actually delivering the level of productivity executives had expected.

The numbers raised some difficult questions. Internal data showed that changes being made to Meta’s software and infrastructure had increased significantly, but the number of new or improved features reaching users was growing at a much slower rate. Reuters also reported an increase in major technical and security incidents linked to the use of AI tools.

Employees were also becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the direction of the company. Some feared they were helping develop AI systems that could eventually replace their own jobs, while internal criticism of Meta’s AI transformation continued to grow.

Meta has confirmed that Project OT existed, but said the company was exploring different restructuring scenarios rather than committing to every option considered. It also stressed that the idea of cutting 60% applied to certain teams in some scenarios and was never a plan to remove 60% of Meta’s entire workforce.

The setback, however, does not mean Meta is abandoning AI.

The company remains one of the biggest investors in artificial intelligence and plans to spend more than $130 billion on AI infrastructure and chips this year. Mark Zuckerberg has also continued to argue that AI will eventually make Meta’s workforce more productive.

What the latest development shows is that moving from experimenting with AI to actually replacing large amounts of human work is proving more complicated than many companies expected.

For Meta, the technology may still reshape the way people work. But for now, the company appears to be taking a more cautious approach to how quickly it can replace workers with AI.

Do you think companies are moving too quickly in trying to replace human workers with AI?