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Mark Zuckerberg Tells Staff AI Agents Haven't Progressed as Quickly as Hoped
Replacing people with AI may not be as straightforward as it seems, if Meta is any indication. During an internal town hall on Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff that the pace of AI agent development has not 'accelerated in the way' executives had previously anticipated, according to Reuters.
Earlier this year, Meta laid off approximately 8,000 employees—about 10 percent of its corporate workforce—and reassigned another 7,000 to various AI-focused groups, including one called Agent Transformation, Bloomberg reported. These moves were part of a broader efficiency push driven by the company's ambitions in AI, a trend that has only intensified across the tech industry in 2026.
During this week's meeting, Zuckerberg commented on the job cuts, noting they were not as 'clean' as they should have been. He explained that top officials were 'worried that we weren't going to move fast enough to adapt' to the rapidly changing tech landscape. The CEO also acknowledged that the anticipated benefits of the new AI-focused structure had not 'come to fruition yet,' though he expressed confidence that the company would begin to see improvements from its AI investments within the next three to six months.
Meta's heavy bet on AI comes with a hefty price tag. The company is expected to spend as much as $145 billion on AI infrastructure this year, according to Reuters. However, not all is well within the ranks: multiple investigative reports have painted a grim picture of Meta's months-old AI unit, with some engineers describing it as a 'soul-crushing gulag,' as TechCrunch reported in June 2026.
TechCrunch reached out to Meta for comment but did not receive an immediate response.