After 8,000 layoffs, Meta CTO says AI overhaul was atrocious

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has reportedly accepted that the company did an "atrocious" job with a recent AI restructuring. Bosworth's comments come just days after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made similar remarks, following 8,000 job cuts at the tech giant.

In Short

• Meta CTO admits company did atrocious job at AI restructuring
• Andrew Bosworth says many employees left in the lurch
• Mark Zuckerberg previously accepted that Meta made mistakes with this plan

Meta has made some big changes in recent months. In March this year, the tech giant created a new Applied AI division which saw around 6,500 engineers and product managers shifted from different teams to work on AI projects. However, employees who were moved to this division were reportedly not happy, with one worker referring to it as a “gulag.” Now, Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth has accepted that the company did a bad job with this AI restructuring.

As per a report from Wired, Bosworth, who is regarded as a loyalist of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, told employees that the company did an "atrocious" job in rolling out its new artificial intelligence division in an internal memo. He wrote, “We obviously did an atrocious job explaining the vision, giving people a clear picture of how we would support them and their careers in the shift, and painting a picture of how it would change over time.”

Andrew Bosworth’s comments come just days after Mark Zuckerberg reportedly shared a similar memo to workers at Meta. Zuckerberg had said, “Given the complexity of these changes, we've made mistakes and will almost certainly make more.”

Keep in mind that the Applied AI division is just a part of the story when it comes to organisational changes at Meta in recent months. In May, the company laid off roughly 8,000 workers globally, with another 7,000 employees being reassigned to new AI-native teams. The tech giant also closed 6,000 openings that it was previously looking to fill.

Meta CTO says company undermined trust of employees

In his memo, Bosworth accepted that the company has not lived up to the trust of its workforce. He added, "We’ve undermined the trust you have that your specific expertise and contribution will be valued, that you will grow and advance your career, and that this will be a place where you can actually have an impact."

The Meta CTO signalled that the company could’ve done a better job in managing the restructuring as many teams were, as he termed it, “left in the lurch.” Andrew Bosworth said, "We shook up the management structure that was providing you stability while rapid changes in strategy, including the boom/bust cycle of hiring, left entire teams in the lurch."

Do note that in recent months, employee morale within Meta has witnessed a sharp decline as per reports. Meta also was forced to tone down its employee mouse tracking programme following internal backlash.

Going forward, Bosworth revealed Meta’s plans to give more attention to employees. As per the Meta CEO, managers will have a cap of about 20 direct reports, and the company will also reduce the number of times employees are moved to new managers during restructurings. Meta also plans to do a better job of explaining the reasons behind strategy shifts and organisational changes. Employees will also be given the option to use “AI coaching” tools if they choose to.

Meta CTO says someone who knows AI might take your job

Meta has been pushing for more AI agents for work. However, Andrew Bosworth has claimed that the company does not plan to replace its human workforce with AI. Rather, he gave a subtle warning when it comes to using more AI at work. He wrote, "We should heed the saying, ‘AI won’t take your job but someone who knows AI might.’"

Another issue which Andrew Bosworth addressed was computing capacity. The Meta CTO claimed that there would be "tough trade-offs for a while" over the amount of compute available to different teams using AI tools. Bosworth added, "We will do our best to be transparent and invest responsibly to alleviate bottlenecks.”

Recent reports indicate that Meta is capping AI use for employees following rising token costs – something that companies like Uber and Microsoft have also faced.

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