Meta cuts APAC staff as AI restructuring accelerates
Meta laid off employees across the Asia Pacific region today as part of a sweeping reorganization centered on artificial intelligence. Staff in Singapore received notification at 4am local time. The company did not immediately disclose which roles or markets were affected.
The cuts are part of a larger shift that reassigns roughly 7,000 Meta employees into new AI-focused positions while reducing headcount elsewhere. Meta is closing approximately 6,000 open roles as part of the same restructuring.
What's changing
Chief people officer Janelle Gale said in a May 18 memo that the company is moving staff into newly created groups centered on AI agents and automation. The reorganization aims to flatten the company's structure and create smaller teams focused on developing AI agents that can perform work traditionally done by employees.
New internal units include Applied AI Engineering, Agent Transformation Accelerator, and Central Analytics. The first two groups will build AI agents. Central Analytics will measure productivity and support agent development.
Meta is also expanding internal use of AI tools, including agent-based systems to assist engineering and coding work. The company is investing heavily in large language models and AI infrastructure to compete with Google and OpenAI.
Employee concerns
The restructuring has triggered internal resistance. More than 1,000 employees signed a petition raising privacy concerns about surveillance tools used in AI training. Staff have also expressed frustration with how the layoffs were handled.
This round of cuts builds on a broader restructuring that began in February 2023, when Meta started recalibrating its workforce around efficiency and AI priorities.
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