GoKawiilSometimes, AI-driven restructuring goes about as well as an AI-assisted legal brief. Reuters reports that Meta spent much of this year testing a plan in which AI would take over many of the workforce's daily tasks. Dubbed Project OT, the plan appears to connect two stories from earlier this year: Meta's 10 percent workforce reduction and the company's program that tracked employees' mouse movements and keystrokes.
Meta executives were reportedly influenced by startups, including some they observed in Asia, that had structured themselves around AI. At an annual leadership retreat in January at Mark Zuckerberg's Hawaii estate, executives laid out an "AI native" vision for the company. AI agents would be overseen by smaller "pods" of human employees. Engineers, designers, product managers and other specialists would increasingly transition into general-purpose "builder" roles. Middle-management layers would shrink, and "agent-assisted analysis" would help determine day-to-day priorities.
Executives considered reducing some teams' headcounts by as much as 60 percent. Layoffs would make up part of the reduction, along with eliminating open positions and pushing out workers the company saw as lower performers. One HR executive projected the reduction to be at least as large as the company's 2023 cuts, which shaved 25 percent off its workforce.
In its original form, Project OT (short for "Organization Transformation") reportedly included a second wave of layoffs in November. CEO Mark Zuckerberg ultimately abandoned (or at least paused) that part of the plan, for reasons Reuters didn't uncover. Meta acknowledged that there was initially a second plan, while framing the more aggressive cuts as merely scenarios that were under consideration.