Meta offers some Applied AI employees a return to management roles — Fortune
Meta has begun asking certain employees without management functions in its Applied AI division whether they want to move into management roles as part of an internal reorganization. This is a voluntary decision, Fortune reports, citing Business Insider, which quoted four sources familiar with the situation.
The initiative partly reverses the company’s course after it spent the past year reducing the number of management layers and promoting a flat organizational structure. Meta did not immediately comment on Fortune’s request.
Applied AI division
Applied AI is an engineering division created in 2026 to combine Meta’s artificial intelligence research with the implementation of technologies in the company’s products. Its task is to train AI models and accelerate their deployment in Meta’s services.
Earlier this year, approximately 7,000 employees were transferred to the division. They included people who had held management positions before the transfer but moved into roles without management functions. According to Wired, the launch of Applied AI was accompanied by dissatisfaction among some employees; some transferred workers were later offered to look for other opportunities within the company.
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Layoffs and AI spending
In 2023, during the year of efficiency declared by Mark Zuckerberg, Meta offered many managers and directors the option of moving into positions without management functions or leaving the company. In May 2026, Meta cut about 10% of its workforce — approximately 8,000 employees — and canceled plans to fill 6,000 open positions. The layoffs disproportionately affected managers and were intended to simplify the reporting structure, freeing resources for AI development.
At the end of the second quarter, Meta had 75,472 employees, 3% fewer than in the previous quarter. The company’s second-quarter revenue rose 28% year-on-year to $60.8 billion, while total expenses increased 55% to $42 billion. Zuckerberg said during the quarterly conference call with investors that artificial intelligence is helping teams accelerate product development.
In July, 26 Meta employees filed a lawsuit against the company. They allege that during the May layoffs, Meta used internal AI systems and activity-monitoring data, disproportionately selecting employees on medical, parental, or family leave.
