After 8,000 Meta layoffs, Mark Zuckerberg says AI won't necessarily replace jobs

Just days after Meta eliminated around 8,000 positions as part of a sweeping restructuring effort, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has sought to reassure workers that artificial intelligence does not inevitably lead to widespread job losses.

Speaking during a live interview on Complex's Idea Generation, Zuckerberg challenged the increasingly common belief that AI will replace large sections of the workforce. While acknowledging that automation is advancing rapidly, he argued that the long-term impact on employment will depend on how businesses choose to deploy the technology.

"People assume that's inevitability. I don't actually think it is," Zuckerberg said.

Rather than viewing AI purely as a tool for replacing employees, he said companies should focus on developing what he described as "personal super intelligence", systems that help individuals perform their work more effectively. If those productivity gains outpace the rate at which businesses automate knowledge-based tasks, he believes employment could ultimately grow instead of shrinking.

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"If you focus on empowering people and making people more productive and that happens at a faster rate than companies get better at automating things, then in theory there should be more jobs in the future, not less," he added.

The comments come at a sensitive moment for Meta, which is simultaneously expanding its AI investments while reducing its workforce.

Meta reshapes workforce to accelerate AI ambitions

According to the company's latest quarterly filing, Meta employed 77,986 people as of April, representing a slight increase from a year earlier. That figure changed significantly in May when the social media giant cut roughly 10 per cent of its workforce, affecting about 8,000 employees across teams including Integrity, cybersecurity and content design.

Layoff notifications were reportedly issued in three phases beginning at 4 am local time across different regions, starting in Asia before moving through Europe and the Americas.

Employees in the United States were offered severance packages that include 16 weeks of pay, an additional two weeks for every completed year of service and up to 18 months of COBRA health insurance coverage.

Alongside the redundancies, Meta is reallocating approximately 7,000 employees to AI-related initiatives while eliminating around 6,000 vacant positions as part of a broader organisational overhaul.

The restructuring reflects Zuckerberg's determination to redirect resources towards artificial intelligence. During the company's recent earnings call, he explained that AI could significantly reduce the size of teams previously required to complete certain tasks, making larger departments increasingly difficult to justify.

Chief financial officer Susan Li also acknowledged that Meta is still reassessing what its optimal workforce should look like as the company continues to reshape itself around AI.

The financial shift is substantial. Meta plans to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion on capital expenditure this year, nearly doubling last year's investment. Much of that funding will support data centres, specialised AI chips and the training of models within Meta Superintelligence Labs. The latest round of job cuts is intended, in part, to offset those rapidly rising costs.

Zuckerberg's optimism contrasts with other AI leaders

Even as Meta reduces headcount, Zuckerberg remains optimistic about AI's broader impact on employment.

His view differs sharply from that of Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, who has warned that as many as half of entry-level white-collar jobs could disappear within the next five years as AI systems become increasingly capable.

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has taken a more measured position, arguing that predictions of an imminent "job apocalypse" have so far failed to materialise, while acknowledging that AI will reshape many roles over time.

Meta itself has undergone a significant transformation in pursuit of AI leadership. Although the company entered the generative AI race later than some rivals, Zuckerberg has described its strategy as a "reboot". The company has invested billions of dollars in recruiting AI researchers and building Meta Superintelligence Labs, a division established less than a year ago.

Meta recently introduced Muse Spark, its first large language model since investing $14 billion in Scale AI. While Zuckerberg said he was encouraged by the progress the company has made, he admitted rising expectations now leave him wanting to move even faster.

For Meta, the challenge is balancing aggressive investment in AI with maintaining confidence among employees and investors. Zuckerberg's message suggests he believes those two goals are not mutually exclusive, even as the company continues to reshape its workforce around artificial intelligence.