After 8,000 layoffs and AI shake-up, Meta CTO says employee morale is near its lowest in company history

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told employees morale is among the worst in the company's history amid layoffs and its AI reorganisation. His remarks and internal memo underscored staff unease over forced role changes, weak communication and the company's AI-first shift.

In Short

• Meta's CTO says employee morale is near historic lows
• Layoffs and AI restructuring have unsettled thousands of employees
• Meta admits it mishandled communication around its AI overhaul

Meta is racing to win the artificial intelligence battle. But inside the company, many employees are struggling to keep pace. In May this year, the tech giant laid off around 8,000 employees and reassigned thousands more as part of a major push to reorganise the company around AI. The company created a new Applied AI division, with around 6,500 engineers and product managers moved from different teams to work on AI projects. Reports at the time suggested that employees were unhappy with the sweeping changes. Now, those concerns have been publicly acknowledged by one of Meta's top executives.

According to a Business Insider report, Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew "Boz" Bosworth said morale at the company is near an all-time low as recent mass layoffs and internal AI initiatives continue to unsettle many longtime employees.

Morale is "maybe not the worst it's ever been in 20 years here, but it's probably up there. It's definitely up there," Bosworth said during an internal "Tuesdays with Boz" chat on June 2, four people who were on the call told Business Insider.

"I can think Cambridge Analytica was probably the worst," Bosworth added, referring to the scandal in which millions of Facebook users' data was used to target voters during the 2016 election.

He then added that morale is "probably one of the worst it's ever been."

Meta admits it made mistakes

This is not the first time the senior Meta executive has spoken about the company's recent missteps. According to a report by Wired, Bosworth, who is regarded as a loyalist of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a memo told employees that the company did an "atrocious" job of rolling out its new artificial intelligence division.

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."

The admission offered a rare glimpse into the uncertainty many employees have reportedly felt as Meta rapidly reshapes itself around AI.

Employees felt 'drafted' into AI work

The creation of the Applied AI division was one of the biggest changes in Meta's AI overhaul. As part of the restructuring, around 6,500 engineers and product managers were moved from different teams to work on AI projects. Business Insider previously reported that some employees referred to joining the mandatory task force as being "drafted" and viewed much of the work as data labelling.

The company also faced employee backlash in April over an initiative to track mouse movements and keystrokes to improve Meta's AI models.

Together, the changes added to concerns among employees as Meta accelerated its push into artificial intelligence.

Trying to rebuild morale

Meta's leadership says it has already begun taking steps to improve morale. In the same memo to staff, Bosworth wrote about how Meta needs to "be the best place for the best people to do their best work" and said he hoped to "rekindle the best of the culture" that employees originally joined, according to a copy obtained by Business Insider and first reported by Wired.

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