- It is expected that 16,000 workers (20% of Meta’s workforce) are at risk
- Zuckerberg said “AI [will] dramatically change the shape [Meta] works in 2026
- 2023 was already Meta’s “Year of Efficiency”: 10,000 workers lost their jobs
Meta plans to cut up to 20% of its workforce according to PakGazette reporting: the equivalent of about 16,000 employees.
Although the company has not yet confirmed such a decision, reports indicate that management has been asked to begin preparing cost-cutting measures.
It is believed that the workforce change would be largely attributable to AI: Meta has already seen the impacts of artificial intelligence on efficiency, but the company has also changed course to focus more on AI tools than metaverse experiences.
Article continues below.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is publicly pushing generative AI within the company; The superintelligence team has also grown recently. Just a few days ago, it was confirmed that Facebook’s parent company had acquired Moltbook, a social media platform exclusively for AI agents, and that company’s leaders moved to the Meta Superintelligence Labs division.
Meta also acquired artificial intelligence company Manus for around $2 billion in late 2025, attracting the attention of Chinese regulators.
During the company’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that “2026 will be the year AI begins to dramatically change the way we work.” He also noted that Meta has already started to see internal changes due to AI-driven efficiencies.
Meta has already laid off many Reality Labs workers this year and around 3,600 workers around this time last year. The company also declared that 2023 would be the “Year of Efficiency”: 10,000 workers lost their jobs as part of that announcement, but the company promised to hire 5,000 workers for other roles.
A Meta spokesperson said TechRadar Pro: “This is a speculative report on theoretical approaches.”
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