{
  "id": 3964764,
  "title": "Mark Zuckerberg Had a Secret Plan to Replace Meta Staff With AI Agents, and It Backfired Spectacularly",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/28/mark-zuckerberg-had-a-secret-plan-to-replace-meta-staff-with-ai",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-08-28T12:55:28.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Futurism",
    "slug": "futurism",
    "url": "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/mark-zuckerberg-secret-plan-replace-meta-staff-ai"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In May, Meta laid off approximately 10% of its global workforce, impacting around 8,000 employees. The mass reduction of personnel came amid repeated assurances of an AI-driven technological revolution that would render human labor obsolete. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, was undoubtedly captivated by the prospect of AI agents assuming the roles of thousands of human staff members. According to Reuters, Meta executives developed a radical plan, codenamed Project Organization Transformation (Project OT), under Zuckerberg's leadership to replace human staffers with AI agents.\n\nInitially, executives aimed to cut teams by an astounding 60%, a figure that proved to be entirely unrealistic. As a result, a second \"wave\" of layoffs, following the devastating May layoffs, was ultimately called off. The May layoffs escalated into a public relations disaster of epic proportions. A lawsuit filed by 26 employees accused the company of utilizing an internal AI platform to select targets, disproportionately targeting individuals with disabilities. The poorly executed firings also wreaked havoc on workplace morale, with furious employees venting their anger through expletive-laden rants on internal message boards. Zuckerberg's attempts to placate staff with improved snacks and hackathons were unsuccessful.\n\nMoreover, Meta faced severe backlash for attempting to install surveillance software on employees' computers to train AI on their typing and clicking activities. Despite the failed AI efforts, Zuckerberg conceded that the cuts were intended to free up funds for mounting capital expenditures. In July, Zuckerberg admitted that AI agent technology was lagging far behind his expectations. Reuters reported that staff were busy \"firefighting\" a significant surge in AI-generated code, leading to technical and security incidents.\n\nWhile Meta acknowledged the plan to cut some teams by up to 60%, the company told Reuters that they ultimately did not proceed with every scenario from the exercise, and it was never assumed they would. Zuckerberg has promised that there won't be any more company-wide layoffs this year, but employees remain apprehensive about future job cuts based on performance. Meta, however, has raised its spending forecast for 2026 as high as $145 billion, despite a plummeting cash flow.",
  "summary": "The company's AI efforts are in shambles. The post Mark Zuckerberg Had a Secret Plan to Replace Meta Staff With AI Agents, and It Backfired Spectacularly appeared first on Futurism .",
  "key_points": [
    "Meta laid off 8,000 employees in May amid AI-driven technological revolution promises.",
    "Project OT aimed to replace 60% of human staff with AI agents, but was unrealistic.",
    "Zuckerberg admitted AI technology lagging behind expectations, halted further company-wide layoffs."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}