Meta Leadership Addresses ‘Soul-Crushing’ Morale in AI Division Meta’s ambitious pivot to artificial intelligence has collided with a crisis in employee morale, leaving leaders acknowledging internal unrest even as they push ahead with a multibillion‑dollar transformation.

Early restructuring and unrest

In May, Meta laid off around 10% of its global workforce as part of an aggressive reorganisation toward an “AI‑native” structure, while transferring roughly another 10%—about 7,000 people—into AI‑related roles, many focused on training models. A newly formed AI unit, employing some 6,500 staff, quickly developed a reputation among some engineers as “a soul-crushing gulag,” with the group described as being “on the verge of revolt.”

By April and May, internal discontent was intensifying. Employees pushed back against a company initiative to track mouse movements and keystrokes in the name of improving AI models, and some staff said being reassigned to the AI task force felt like being “drafted” into largely data‑labeling work.

Leadership acknowledges the damage

On June 2, during a “Tuesdays with Boz” internal session, CTO Andrew Bosworth told employees that morale was “maybe not the worst it’s ever been in 20 years here, but it’s probably up there,” adding that it was “probably one of the worst it’s ever been,” comparing it only to the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. He later circulated a memo arguing Meta must “be the best place for the best people to do their best work” and promising to “rekindle the best of the culture” that originally attracted employees.

Zuckerberg’s response and course correction

In a separate memo, CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted “we’ve made mistakes and will almost certainly make more” in the speed and scale of the AI restructuring. He sought to calm fears of further upheaval, saying Meta does not expect more company‑wide layoffs this year and pledging to find “important new roles” for staff reassigned to model training so they can be moved again if needed.

Zuckerberg also signaled a partial retreat from an extremely flat hierarchy—reportedly featuring manager‑to‑staff ratios as high as 50:1—and promised greater investment in team‑building, including larger budgets for offsites and a major AI hackathon in July to help rebuild culture and engagement.

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