In these scenarios, Meta would give some employees new roles and lay off others. One HR executive reportedly said that Meta would have reduced its headcount by about 25 percent or more under these scenarios. Meta told Reuters that it canceled Project OT before determining how many layoffs the plan called for.

Meta was going to use some of the money that it saved from layoffs to pay for high-performing employees, especially those with AI engineering skills, Reuters reported, citing “two people familiar with the matter.”

“AI native”

One of the Project OT documents that Reuters reviewed described “AI native” as a company where “AI-ready tools and agents interact, workflows are automated, [and] new builds are AI-first.” Being “AI native” also means, per the document, selling AI agents to third parties, which Meta started doing in June.

This year, Meta reportedly launched a pilot program that restructured engineering teams, research teams, and at least eight other teams into smaller groups.

This followed the reported October publishing of an internal post called “AI-Native Playbook,” in which a Meta product management team member outlined how the pilot would remove middle management and use “agent-assisted analysis” to help prioritize daily tasks.

Reuters noted that HR employees and “AI systems” would help Meta’s leaders decide about promotions; however, Meta told the publication: “Performance rating and promotion decisions were and are made by people, not AI.”

Second thoughts

Immediately after issuing the May layoffs, Zuckerberg reportedly canceled the November wave. Reuters said it “was unable to determine what exactly prompted Zuckerberg to shift course.”