Meta just kicked off another huge round of layoffs, and this time, nearly 10 per cent of its global staff are getting cut. Meta played out quite well to escape any commotion in the organisation, as workers in regions like Singapore, the US and the UK were told to stay home and work; then, right around 4 AM, they found the layoff emails in their inboxes.
The Meta move of suggesting the ‘work from home’, and then suddenly laying off the employees in huge numbers, has set off a fresh wave of anxiety and a lot of criticism online.
8000 employees lost their jobs at Meta
Around 8,000 people are losing their jobs in this round of layoffs. Meta had almost 78,000 employees before this, so it certainly is a big hit.
Who were impacted?
The engineering and product teams got hit especially hard, while the company started shifting a huge chunk of what’s left into AI-focused departments.
Meta’s Chief People Officer, Janelle Gale, broke the news to employees: they want smaller, faster teams, with less management and more individual responsibility.
Meta is going gaga for AI adoption
All of these layoffs are being tracked, and it is said to be the obsession of Meta with AI lately. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not shy to admit the same, as he keeps saying that AI comes first.
The company plans to pour somewhere between USD 125 billion and USD 145 billion into operations this year, most of that going straight into AI: better servers, new computing tech, tools to automate, the works.
So, traditional roles are on the chopping block while machine learning teams keep growing.
Inside Meta, morale tanked fast. Just the rumoUr of layoffs had staffers backing up files and clearing out their desks early. That tension got worse after word spread that Meta was testing internal tracking, which measures employee keystrokes and mouse clicks, supposedly to help develop new AI tools. Nobody liked that; over a thousand employees signed petitions to fight those surveillance measures.
Many tech giants are laying off employees: Employees are in danger!
Meta is not the only company that has been letting the staff go without warning. This year (2026), big names like Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon, Oracle, and even Disney have reportedly cut a lot of jobs and restructured on a bigger scale.
All the tech giants seem to be rewriting the rules, shifting more work to AI and automation, leaning on fewer humans to get things done.
AI is bringing a permanent change in tech industry
Industry analysts stated that this is not a temporary change in the tech organisations. Rather, it is a permanent change being adopted by the organisations.
What do we need to do to stay in tech organisations?
If you want to stay in tech, focus on building AI systems, managing automation, and solving bigger-picture problems. Talking about future jobs in tech companies, you need to learn complex AI tools and must have knowledge of intelligent systems, which are being adopted by major organisations.