Meta cuts 10% staff, shifts thousands to AI units amid employee protests

Meta announced sweeping layoffs and organizational changes this week, cutting 10% of its global workforce (about 7,798 employees based on March 2026 headcount) and moving thousands of staff to AI-focused units. In a memo seen by Reuters, Chief People Officer Janelle Gale detailed plans to transfer 7,000 employees to new initiatives such as Applied AI Engineering (AAI) and Agent Transformation Accelerator (ATA)—both part of CTO Andrew Bosworth's "AI for Work" push to develop autonomous AI agents. The company is also eliminating managerial roles and adopting flatter structures with smaller teams, as Gale noted: "many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership." Additionally, Meta closed 6,000 open roles as part of the overhaul.

The changes have sparked employee revolt. Over 1,000 workers signed a petition criticizing Meta's installation of mouse-tracking software designed to train AI models on human-computer interactions, citing privacy violations. Employees have also used the internal Workplace platform to post elephant emoji symbols—referring to the "elephant in the room"—demanding executives address the layoffs after Reuters first reported them over a month ago. The protests reflect broader tensions as Meta accelerates AI investments at the cost of job security and employee trust. The restructuring ultimately affects about 20% of the workforce when combining layoffs and transfers.