Meta Abandons AI Workforce Plan After Productivity Gains Fail

Meta Platforms abandoned an ambitious plan to drastically reduce its workforce in favor of AI agents after the technology failed to deliver expected productivity gains and employees fiercely resisted the changes, according to a Reuters investigation published on August 26, 2026. The initiative, codenamed Project OT, was conceived in January 2026 at a leadership retreat at CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Hawaiian estate and aimed to transform Meta into an "AI native" company where intelligent agents would handle substantial portions of work traditionally performed by humans. The plan involved reducing some teams by as much as 60 percent in two waves, with the first round of layoffs occurring in May and a second planned for November. However, on the evening of May 19, just hours before the first layoffs were set to begin, Zuckerberg halted the second wave. Meta proceeded with the May 20 layoffs, which reduced its workforce by 10 percent, but the more aggressive subsequent cuts were permanently shelved. Internal data revealed that the AI agents at the center of the strategy were not delivering the productivity gains Meta had anticipated.