Meta asks some AI employees to become managers again in partial reversal of flatter-team push: report

Meta has reportedly begun asking some employees in its Applied AI (AAI) division to transition back into management roles, marking a partial reversal of the company's broader push toward a flatter structure.

The decision is part of a recent reshuffle, Business Insider reported late Thursday, citing four people with knowledge of the matter. Meta declined to comment.

Meta launched the AAI division earlier this year to focus on training AI models, reassigning roughly 7,000 employees to the unit. Some of those people had held manager positions at the company, but were assigned individual contributor roles within AAI instead.

The move represents a change in tack for Meta, after it spent much of the past year cutting middle management and promoting smaller, flatter teams as more efficient, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg praising lean startup-style organizations as artificial intelligence takes on more work.

Staff exits

Meta has eliminated about 10% of its workforce this year, heavily targeting managers amid soaring AI investment costs, a Business Insider analysis of public layoff notices found. Some employees previously reassigned to AAI left the organization after complaining they had been "drafted" into the unit, the outlet said.

Meta's move comes amid a range of high-profile departures from AI firms, including its own star AI researcher Andrew Tulloch, who is reportedly leaving the firm less than a year after he was offered a package that could have been worth as much as $1.5 billion.

Google chief scientist Jeff Dean also recently exited to launch a new AI startup. Meanwhile, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon's resignation after a short stint amid his claims that "AI could end humanity by 2030" went viral on global news networks this week.