Across regions, Meta informed employees to work from home on May 20. As minds filled with relaxation, emails started to pop up as early as 4 AM and soon despair followed. Around 8,000 employees across several countries were laid off today and Singapore was the first to experience the hit.
Ahead of the string of emails, Meta announced that there will be a layoff round but no one expected the numbers to be this high. Singapore, one of the company’s largest Asian hubs, was among the first to receive layoff notices and the US and European countries can expect the same based on their timings.
Reports suggest that the layoffs are spread across multiple departments, including engineering, product development, operations and support functions.
The main reason for the mass layoff is the introduction of AI in the workspace. Meta is restructuring its strategy in attempts to streamline operations and cut costs across several business units. So, finally AI is replacing the human workforce? Well, it might not be as dramatic as it sounds, because Meta has also hired 7,000 people in replacement of the job cuts.
Meta is ramping up its core teams with an AI-powered workforce. Alongside the layoffs, the company has simultaneously accelerated hiring for AI-focused roles, aggressively bringing in engineers and specialists working on AI systems and autonomous agents. This is a push to a broader business strategy and futuristic vision of the company.
Meta's chief people officer Janelle Gale has informed this effort is made to create “a flatter structure with smaller teams” that can move faster and operate more efficiently. And as per reports, this switch can help Meta save up to $3 billion annually in operating costs.
Reports suggest that AI has become the top priority to CEO Mark Zuckerberg as competition intensifies with rivals like Google and OpenAI. The company is fully focused on making workloads driven and optimised by the AI and so it is expected to spend more than $100 billion on AI-related investments this year. This includes areas like data centres, AI models, and advanced computing infrastructure.
However, the company itself still seems to be figuring out what working alongside AI truly looks like. The ideal AI-powered workforce hasn’t quite been cracked yet. So, for now, it appears a tech giant like Meta is also somewhat stuck in a situationship with AI.
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