Meta's Project OT: Planned 60% Team Cuts via AI, Called Off at Last Minute

Reuters reports Meta's Project OT (Organization Transformation) — a plan to cut team sizes by up to 60% through AI adoption. Called off at the last minute, the plan reveals how far Meta was willing to go and the fallout engineers already faced.

Key Details from the Plan

Formed in January at Zuckerberg's Hawaii retreat, Project OT envisioned an "AI native" Meta where smaller, "talent-dense" teams oversee AI workers. Internal documents showed many teams could shrink by 60% via layoffs and reassignments. HR projected total layoffs exceeding the 2022-2023 round (25% of staff). The plan called for two waves: May and November.

What Actually Happened

Hours before the May 19 cuts, Zuckerberg "blinked" — canceling November planning. The May cuts only reached 10% of staff, but some teams still faced 30-40% cuts. Engineers with critical domain knowledge were reassigned to AI data labeling, causing knowledge loss and outages like the Instagram "zero auth password reset" bug where any account could be hijacked via AI bot.

Why This Matters for Engineers

Meta's move reflects a broader trend: companies betting AI can replace senior roles. But the struggles of remaining teams highlight the risk — AI can't yet replace deep domain expertise required for infrastructure and product work.

For engineers, this signals a push toward "AI-native" workflows; understanding what AI can and can't do in your domain is crucial for job security.