Meta staff canceled the mass layoff plan for AI agents
- Meta planned to cut 60% of its staff as part of Project OT.
- Employees protested, citing the risk of AI replacement.
- The company only laid off about 10% of its workers and canceled large-scale layoffs.
- The implementation of AI agents faced investor skepticism and productivity issues.
In January 2026, Meta's management introduced an initiative codenamed Project OT (Organization Transformation). According to the company, the goal of the project is a radical reorganization, in which more than half of the employees are expected to leave, with their functions taken over by AI agents.
The plan included two sequential stages: closing open positions, laying off employees deemed insufficiently productive by management, and subsequently redistributing the remaining staff. It was expected that automated agents would take over routine office tasks, and the middle management layer would be eliminated.
Employees quickly perceived the initiative as a threat to their jobs. Protests erupted worldwide, and analysts noted that the implemented AI solutions have not yet delivered the promised increase in efficiency. Investors also expressed skepticism, pointing to the company's huge budgets for artificial intelligence development without tangible results.
Under pressure from protests and financial issues, on May 20, Meta conducted the first wave of layoffs, dismissing about 10% of its employees, but officially rejected further layoffs of 60% of the staff. In an official statement, the company emphasized that scenarios included both layoffs and redistribution of personnel, however, 'mass selection on such a scale was not planned to be implemented.'
In the previous year, Meta's management actively promoted the ideas of a fully AI-oriented approach: ready-made tools and agents were supposed to interact with each other, automate processes, and become the foundation for new projects. Proponents believed that traditional roles of designers and product engineers should disappear, and technical teams would turn into purely developers, subordinate to a single senior executive.
By June 2026, small experimental modules were launched in eleven divisions, including engineering and research, where AI agents participated in planning and evaluating work. Employees characterized the new management style as 'village-like,' where decisions about promotions and performance evaluations are made jointly by organizational leaders, the HR department, and non-public AI systems.
In addition, Meta required staff to install software that records keystrokes and mouse clicks, with the aim of training agents to imitate human interaction with computers. This step caused additional discontent, as employees saw it as a violation of privacy and an increase in control.
The refusal to implement large-scale layoffs has sent a signal to the tech industry: even the largest players investing billions in AI face real limitations in implementing automation. The discussion about the balance between innovation and job preservation remains acute, and the future of the OT project is still uncertain.
Source: 3DNews
