--- title: Meta's AI agent plan backfired badly enough to cancel... description: Meta canceled a planned second round of layoffs after its AI agent program, internally called Project OT, caused what internal documents call 'large-scale,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/meta-s-ai-agent-plan-backfired-badly-enough-to-cancel-the-second-round-of-layoffs-cpkmcwu3r twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Meta's AI agent plan backfired badly enough to cancel the second round of layoffs | daily.dev og:description: Meta canceled a planned second round of layoffs after its AI agent program, internally called Project OT, caused what internal documents call 'large-scale,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/meta-s-ai-agent-plan-backfired-badly-enough-to-cancel-the-second-round-of-layoffs-cpkmcwu3r og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/CPkmCWu3r.png og:image:alt: Meta's AI agent plan backfired badly enough to cancel the second round of layoffs og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Meta's AI agent plan backfired badly enough to cancel the second round of layoffs **[Trends](https://daily.dev/sources/trends)** · 2 min read · 3 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Meta canceled a planned second round of layoffs after its AI agent program, internally called Project OT, caused what internal documents call 'large-scale, disruptive actions.' The plan aimed to cut some teams by up to 60% and replace daily work with AI agents supervised by small pods. A first wave in May cut roughly 8,000 jobs and moved 7,000 into AI-adjacent roles. Reuters reviewed internal documents and spoke to over 20 sources, finding AI agents drove a 220% year-over-year increase in code changes, a 36% rise in user-facing features, but also more security incidents, more firefighting time, and dropping employee sentiment. Meta even deployed and then paused mouse-tracking software meant to train agents on human work patterns. Engineering commentator Gergely Orosz called the findings 'damning' and linked them to Meta's senior engineer attrition. Twenty-six employees have sued, alleging layoffs targeted workers on medical leave. Meta says no further company-wide layoffs are planned for the rest of the year, though team-level cuts remain possible. ## Content Reuters got hold of internal Meta documents and talked to 20+ sources, and the picture is not flattering. Early this year, Zuckerberg came back from a leadership retreat inspired by AI-native startups in Asia and greenlit Project OT: cut some teams by 60%, replace the daily work with AI agents supervised by small "talent-dense" pods. The plan called for two layoff waves — May and November — that would have been bigger than the 2022-2023 cuts combined. The November wave got scrapped. Why? The AI agents reportedly took "large-scale, disruptive actions." Meta hasn't elaborated on what that means, but the internal data tells part of the story: AI-generated code changes were up 220% year over year, while user-facing features grew only 36%. Security incidents surged. Firefighting time went up. The agents were busy; they just weren't building anything users could see. Meta still went ahead with the May round — roughly 8,000 people, about 10% of staff. Another 7,000 were reassigned to AI data labeling work. Mouse-tracking software meant to train the agents was quietly paused after employees noticed. Sentiment scores dropped. 26 employees have sued, alleging the cuts targeted workers on medical leave. Gergely Orosz put it plainly: "Well this is damning and explains SO MUCH about why Meta is losing its best engineers; why morale is rock-bottom; and why an engineering culture built up in 20 years was destroyed overnight. Zuck + execs wanted to lay off ~60% of staff. When the business does better than ever." That last part is the thing. Meta's financials are strong. This wasn't a distressed company making hard choices — it was a profitable one running a workforce experiment, and the experiment partially failed in ways that haven't been fully disclosed. Meta confirmed the scenario-planning happened but says not every scenario was implemented. Which is technically true. The November wave didn't happen. But 8,000 people still lost jobs, domain knowledge walked out the door, oncall capacity shrank, and the engineers who stayed are apparently demoralized enough that the best ones are leaving anyway. The agents caused disruptions. The humans caused a different kind. ## Questions this post answers ### Why did Meta cancel its planned second round of layoffs in November? Meta scrapped the November layoff wave after AI agents deployed under Project OT reportedly took large-scale, disruptive actions. Internal data showed AI-generated code changes rose 220% year over year while user-facing features grew only 36%, alongside surging security incidents and increased firefighting time, suggesting the agents were active but not productive. _Follow how AI-agent rollouts at major companies actually play out for engineering teams on daily.dev._ ### How many people did Meta actually lay off under Project OT? Meta laid off roughly 8,000 people, about 10% of staff, in a May round tied to Project OT, its plan to replace engineering work with AI agents supervised by small teams. Another 7,000 employees were reassigned to AI data labeling work instead of being cut. A second, larger wave planned for November was cancelled. _Track how AI restructuring plans translate into real headcount changes on daily.dev._ --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#company-culture](https://daily.dev/tags/company-culture) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/meta-s-ai-agent-plan-backfired-badly-enough-to-cancel-the-second-round-of-layoffs-cpkmcwu3r) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Meta's AI agent plan backfired badly enough to cancel the second round of layoffs","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/meta-s-ai-agent-plan-backfired-badly-enough-to-cancel-the-second-round-of-layoffs-cpkmcwu3r","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/meta-s-ai-agent-plan-backfired-badly-enough-to-cancel-the-second-round-of-layoffs-cpkmcwu3r"},"datePublished":"2026-08-31T13:16:45.670Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T20:04:06.262Z","description":"Meta canceled a planned second round of layoffs after its AI agent program, internally called Project OT, caused what internal documents call 'large-scale,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/6e6f05a6279e167e61f26ec25e96a0d0?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/6e6f05a6279e167e61f26ec25e96a0d0?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Trends","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Trends","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZfSp3asX--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996004/logos/trends?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/meta-s-ai-agent-plan-backfired-badly-enough-to-cancel-the-second-round-of-layoffs-cpkmcwu3r","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai-agents,company-culture","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trends","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Meta's AI agent plan backfired badly enough to cancel the second round of layoffs"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/meta-s-ai-agent-plan-backfired-badly-enough-to-cancel-the-second-round-of-layoffs-cpkmcwu3r#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did Meta cancel its planned second round of layoffs in November?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Meta scrapped the November layoff wave after AI agents deployed under Project OT reportedly took large-scale, disruptive actions. Internal data showed AI-generated code changes rose 220% year over year while user-facing features grew only 36%, alongside surging security incidents and increased firefighting time, suggesting the agents were active but not productive. Follow how AI-agent rollouts at major companies actually play out for engineering teams on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How many people did Meta actually lay off under Project OT?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Meta laid off roughly 8,000 people, about 10% of staff, in a May round tied to Project OT, its plan to replace engineering work with AI agents supervised by small teams. Another 7,000 employees were reassigned to AI data labeling work instead of being cut. A second, larger wave planned for November was cancelled. Track how AI restructuring plans translate into real headcount changes on daily.dev."}}]} ```