Meta Platforms Inc.'s (NASDAQ: META) plan to reshape its workforce around artificial intelligence has run into real trouble, from staff revolts to AI agents causing more chaos than they solved.
A Reddit AMA Peels Back the Curtain
Reuters technology correspondent Katie Paul, who first reported on Meta's internal "Project OT" plan to cut team sizes by up to 60% in two waves, shared new details about the fallout during a Reddit AMA.
Asked whether the plan had truly "imploded" or was simply on hold, Paul said executives have acknowledged some problems publicly while privately fretting about others.
She said CTO Andrew Bosworth admitted internally that the company did an "atrocious job explaining the vision" to staff, while CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told employees he got "the timing wrong."
Paul noted that the pressure to use AI everywhere, internally called "tokenmaxxing," has since been dropped in favor of using it "when it makes sense."
A Cost-Cutting Bet That Backfired
When a user asked whether Meta was "desperate" to replace employees with AI to save money, Paul said Zuckerberg told staff the company effectively has two cost centers, compute infrastructure and people, and spending more on one leaves less for the other.
Asked separately whether Meta faced AI-driven reliability problems similar to those reported at Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Paul said she wasn't familiar with Amazon's situation but confirmed that similar problems were happening at Meta.
She added that major site reliability emergencies rose 40% year-over-year, and because AI-caused incidents were "weirder and less predictable" than human-caused ones, staff spent 70% more time "firefighting" them.
Meta did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.
The Job Cuts
Meta already cut roughly 8,000 jobs, about 10% of its workforce, in a May layoff tied to its AI infrastructure spending.
In its second-quarter earnings report in July, the company raised its full-year capital expenditure guidance to a range of $130 billion to $145 billion, up from its prior forecast of $125 billion to $145 billion.
Zuckerberg reportedly told staff in July that he still believes the company's AI direction is correct and expects meaningful returns within three to six months, even as he's acknowledged that "the trajectory of the agentic development over at least the last four months hasn't really accelerated in the way that we expected."
Price Action: Shares closed 3.01% higher on Thursday at $610.68 and climbed 0.46% in early premarket trading on Friday.
According to Benzinga edge rankings, Meta's stock has a Momentum score in the 13th percentile and a Growth score in the 78th percentile.