As Meta employees brace for layoffs next month, the big question is how many humans it actually needs in the age of AI.
In a telling moment during Wednesday's first-quarter earnings call, CFO Susan Li said she "doesn't really know" what the company's ideal head count looks like.
"I think there's a lot of change right now, with AI capabilities advancing rapidly," she said.
That question is causing anxiety across tech, not just at Meta, which is set to cut 10% of its staff on May 20.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn't address the layoffs directly during the call, though he pushed back on the idea espoused by other CEOs that AI would cause mass unemployment.
"AI isn't going to replace people," Zuckerberg said. "Instead, I think that AI is going to amplify people's ability to do what they want."
Zuckerberg said that Meta is "streamlining" its teams so they aren't bigger than they need to be — consistent with his preference for small, fast-moving groups.
Because of AI, Meta is seeing more and more examples of one or two people building something in a week that would previously have taken dozens of people months, he said.
Li, for her part, tied the layoffs to Meta's AI infrastructure splurge. The company has doubled its annual capital expenditures to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion, far outpacing revenue growth. Meta's stock dropped 6% after it disclosed these details, among others.
"As we grow our infrastructure spend, we remain committed to operating efficiently, and we recently shared internally that we plan to reduce the size of our employee base in May," Li said.
Companies are under mounting pressure to shrink their workforces as AI capabilities expand. Fintech company Block laid off 40% of its employees earlier this year, explicitly citing AI progress. Last week, Microsoft began offering voluntary buyouts to longtime staff.
Internally, Meta has become one of the more aggressive adopters of AI, launching regular "AI Weeks," designating some employees as "AI builders," and reorganizing teams into "AI pods."
