Meta is among the companies that are most rapidly restructuring their operations around artificial intelligence. Mark Zuckerberg now admits that this process has not been without its challenges. In an internal memo obtained by Reuters, the Meta boss wrote that the company had made mistakes during the reorganisation of its teams and would likely make further mistakes as the technology continues to develop.
Zuckerberg’s comments come a few weeks after one of the biggest restructurings in the company’s history. In May, Meta laid off around 10 per cent of its global workforce, or nearly 8,000 employees, whilst simultaneously transferring around 7,000 people to new initiatives related to the use of AI. In total, the changes affected almost a fifth of the organisation.
According to Meta’s CEO, the aim was to create new roles related to the development and training of artificial intelligence models, whilst simplifying parts of the organisational structure. Zuckerberg emphasised that the company would try to find new roles for those who had been moved to AI projects if the current model proved unsuccessful.
However, the transformation is not limited to personnel changes. Meta is significantly increasing its spending on the infrastructure needed for the development of artificial intelligence. In April, the company raised its forecast for this year’s capital expenditure to between $125 billion and $145 billion, which demonstrates the scale of the company’s ambitions in its rivalry with OpenAI, Google and Microsoft.
At the same time, Meta’s management is attempting to ease tensions within the organisation. The company has announced larger budgets for team integration, the organisation of corporate events, and a major hackathon dedicated to the development of the latest AI models. Zuckerberg also addressed criticism regarding the overly broad scope of managers’ responsibilities and announced a move away from some of these practices.
Meta’s story shows that AI-driven transformation is not merely a technological challenge. For the largest companies, it also means the need to overhaul processes, teams and management practices. In Meta’s case, the scale of these changes is one of the most striking examples of how the race for AI dominance is affecting organisations and their employees.
