Meta asks AI engineers to manage again, reversing flattening

Meta's earlier flattening was not a one-off. In 2023, during Zuckerberg's "year of efficiency," the company asked managers and directors to become individual contributors or leave. That approach hardened in 2026: in May, Meta cut about 10% of its workforce, roughly 8,000 employees, and scrapped plans to fill 6,000 open positions. The layoffs disproportionately hit managers, aiming to simplify reporting lines and free resources for AI. The new Applied AI division, launched in 2026, absorbed roughly 7,000 reassigned employees, some of whom had been managers before moving into individual contributor roles.

The friction has been real. Wired reported employee frustration over the AAI rollout, and some reassigned workers were later given the option to pursue other roles. In July, 26 Meta employees sued, alleging internal AI and activity-monitoring data was used to disproportionately target those on medical, parental, or family leave during the May cuts. Meta ended the second quarter with 75,472 employees, down 3% from the prior quarter, a figure that includes the roughly 8,000 affected by the May reductions.

At the same time, AI spending keeps climbing. Zuckerberg said AI investments now shape every major part of Meta's business, and second-quarter revenue rose 28% to $60.8 billion while total expenses jumped 55% to $42 billion. The management retooling suggests that automating tasks and removing bureaucracy may not remove the need for human coordination in building advanced AI at scale. Whether this voluntary offer spreads beyond Applied AI will indicate how far Meta is willing to rebuild the layers it spent a year removing.