After 8,000 layoffs, Mark Zuckerberg admits Meta made mistakes in AI restructuring

Mark Zuckerberg told Meta employees the company made mistakes during its AI-led workforce overhaul. He said there should be no more company-wide layoffs this year as Meta seeks stability amid further changes.

In Short

• The May restructuring moved 7,000 employees into new AI workflow initiatives
• The company also laid off around 8,000 employees
• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg now admits that the company made mistakes during its AI-driven restructuring

Meta laid off around 8,000 employees and reassigned thousands more earlier this year as part of a major push to reorganise the company around artificial intelligence. The Facebook and Instagram parent said the move would help accelerate its AI ambitions, but the transformation has not gone entirely to plan. In a recent internal memo seen by Reuters, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that Meta made mistakes during the restructuring and said the company would "almost certainly make more" as it continues adapting to the fast-moving AI era.

In the official letter, seen by Reuters, Zuckerberg told staff that Meta's AI transformation had not gone perfectly and that more mistakes were likely as the company continued adapting to rapid technological change.

The comments come just weeks after Meta carried out one of its biggest organisational shake-ups in recent years. In May, the company laid off about 10 per cent of its global workforce — roughly 8,000 employees based on its headcount of nearly 78,000 workers at the end of March — while reassigning around 7,000 employees to AI-related initiatives and workflows. According to reports, the restructuring and role changes could ultimately affect about one-fifth of Meta's workforce.

Meta's mega AI mission

Zuckerberg has been pouring billions of dollars into AI infrastructure, talent and products as he seeks to transform Meta into an AI-first company. The social media giant, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is among a growing number of technology firms reorganising their operations around artificial intelligence. The company has also been exploring the use of AI agents to perform tasks that have traditionally been handled by employees.

In the memo, Zuckerberg described the pace of AI development as both exciting and challenging.

"Given the complexity of these changes, we've made mistakes and will almost certainly make more," he wrote, while adding that he remains focused on providing as much stability as possible during future organisational changes.

No more company-wide layoffs at Meta this year

At the same time, Zuckerberg sought to reassure employees about job security. He said Meta does not expect any further company-wide layoffs this year, although he cautioned that broader changes in the industry remain outside the company's control.

"I don't want to overpromise because the world is changing in ways that are out of our control," Zuckerberg said, according to the memo.

He also noted that Meta would try to identify new opportunities for employees who had been reassigned to help train AI models and systems.

Explaining the rationale behind the restructuring, Zuckerberg said the creation of new AI-focused roles had allowed Meta to shrink some teams while retaining flexibility.

"By creating important new roles for people, this also allowed us to shrink the size of teams knowing that if we make mistakes in some places, then we could transfer some people back," he wrote.

The memo also outlined several measures aimed at improving employee morale and collaboration. Zuckerberg said Meta plans to increase spending on team-building activities, including larger budgets for company offsites and corporate events. The company is also preparing a large-scale hackathon in July designed to encourage cross-team collaboration and accelerate development of its latest AI models.

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