- 16,000 workers (20% of Meta's headcount) are expected to be at risk
- Zuckerberg said "AI [will] dramatically change the way [Meta] works in 2026
- 2023 was already Meta's "Year of Efficiency" – 10,000 workers lost their jobs
Meta is planning to cut as much as 20% of its workforce according to Reuters reporting – the equivalent of round 16,000 employees.
Although the company has not yet confirmed such a decision, reports indicate that managers have been asked to start preparing cost-cutting measures.
It's believed the workforce shift would largely be attributable to AI – Meta has already seen the impacts of artificial intelligence on efficiency, but the company has also shifted tack to focus more on AI tools than metaverse experiences.
Meta could be cutting 16,000 jobs, linked to AI push
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is publicly pushing generative AI within the company – the superintelligence team has also grown recently. Just days ago, it was confirmed that Facebook's parent company had acquired Moltbook, a social media platform exclusively for AI agents, with that company's leaders moving over to the Meta Superintelligence Labs division.
Meta also acquired AI firm Manus for around $2 billion in late 2025, gaining the attention of Chinese regulators.
Speaking during the company's Q4 2025 earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that "2026 is going to be the year that AI starts to dramatically change the way that we work." He also noted that Meta has already started to see internal shifts due to AI-driven efficiency.
Meta has already laid off many Reality Labs workers this year and around 3,600 workers this time last year. The company also declared 2023 to be the 'Year of Efficiency' – 10,000 workers lost their jobs as part of that announcement, but the company did promise to hire 5,000 workers into other roles.
A Meta spokesperson told TechRadar Pro: "This is a speculative report about theoretical approaches."
