Overview
- This week multiple outlets reported that Meta has been asking some individual contributors in its Applied AI unit to volunteer to resume manager duties, and the outreach is described as opt-in.
- About 7,000 employees were moved into the Applied AI division earlier this year and some of those reassigned workers had previously held management jobs.
- The request follows a year of sweeping cuts that removed many managers, including roughly 10% of Meta’s workforce in May, and Meta declined to comment on the recent reports.
- Internal criticism of the Applied AI rollout prompted acknowledgments from leaders — Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth called aspects of the rollout “atrocious” — and the company previously let some reassigned staff leave after they said they were effectively drafted into the unit.
- The shift suggests a partial reversal of Meta’s manager-light strategy as the company balances heavy AI infrastructure spending with the real-world need for human coordination and oversight when training and deploying large models.