Meta CEO Zuckerberg admits mistakes after AI‑driven layoffs and employee unrest

Meta cut roughly 8,000 jobs – about 10 % of its global workforce – in May and reassigned around 7,000 staff to new AI‑focused projects. The rapid creation of an Applied AI department of about 6,500 engineers led to forced transfers, high workloads and a flat management structure where some managers oversaw as many as 50 contributors. Morale fell sharply, culminating in a public employee outburst during an internal livestream in which a worker called an AI supervisor “a piece of shit.”

In an internal memo Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged the turmoil, writing, “Given the complexity of these changes, we’ve made mistakes and will almost certainly make more.” He promised to provide “as much stability as possible,” ruled out further company‑wide layoffs this year, and announced a large‑scale hackathon for July. Meta also said it will scale back the expanded manager oversight after hearing staff concerns.

The episode highlights the challenges of reshaping a large tech firm around generative‑AI ambitions and raises questions about talent retention as the company ramps up AI investment while trying to repair employee confidence.