Meta prepares for more layoffs days after announcing investments in AI

• According to reports, Meta Platforms Inc. is gearing up to cut thousands of jobs in an upcoming round of layoffs.
• Meta’s plans for the layoffs may be finalized in the next week.

Meta Platforms Inc., the owner of Facebook and Instagram, is reportedly gearing up for another round of layoffs, with thousands of employees expected to be affected by this fresh job cut. The company has already slashed 11,000 jobs in its earlier round of cuts, which was its first major layoff.

Meta is aiming to become a more efficient organization by eliminating jobs, in addition to the 13% reduction it made in November. In February, Bloomberg News reported that the company is in the process of flattening its organization by offering buyout packages to managers and eliminating entire teams that it considers nonessential. This effort is still being finalized and could impact thousands of employees.

Sources familiar with the matter have reported that the upcoming job cuts are motivated by financial targets and are separate from Meta’s efforts to flatten its organization. Reportedly, Meta has asked directors and vice presidents to make lists of employees who could be let go, as the company has seen a slowdown in advertising revenue and has shifted focus to a virtual-reality platform called the metaverse.

While a Meta spokesperson recently declined to comment on the plans, the sources indicate that this round of layoffs could be finalized in the next week.

While the November layoffs came as a shock, this time the Meta workforce is expecting another round of job cuts. Sources have reported that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has labeled 2023 as Meta’s “year of efficiency,” and the company has communicated this message to employees during recently concluded performance reviews.

As a result, workers at the Menlo Park-based company are reportedly experiencing increased anxiety and decreased morale. Employees are also concerned that if let go before bonuses are given out this month, they will not receive their payment.

Despite layoffs, Meta invests heavily in AI and privacy-enhancing technologies

The news is surprising because just last week, Meta held a Data and AI Performance Summit in Singapore, which attracted almost 2,000 participants from the APAC region. During the event, the company announced ground-breaking news and updates on its current standing, only to reveal a few days later that thousands more layoffs are imminent.

Meta’s Regional Agency team organized the summit intending to improve advertiser performance by building AI-powered tools and new experiences for the over 10 million businesses that use personalized ads on Meta platforms. Meta has also heavily invested in industry-leading AI to help advertisers respond to a digital ads ecosystem with limited access to data.

Annette Male, APAC Agency Director at Meta, emphasized that the company continues to invest heavily in AI and innovation, which has been a major focus for several years and is now bearing fruit. The company’s efforts are aimed at driving business success – and the results are evident.

“In the fourth quarter of 2022, advertisers saw over 20% more conversions than in the year before. Combined with a declining cost per acquisition, this has resulted in higher returns on ad spend. The feedback from agencies and advertisers has been positive and encouraging,” Male added.

Meta’s Advantage+ creative standard enhancements feature AI that allows advertisers to apply small adjustments, such as modifying brightness, aspect ratios, and text placement, to enhance their creative performance. Recent testing has revealed that ads using these standard enhancements resulted in 14% more incremental purchases per dollar spent.

Male emphasized that Meta is committed to driving “performance on people’s terms” by giving people more control and visibility over how their data is used to personalize ads and providing more options for personalizing their ad preferences. This investment is ongoing at Meta to improve user experience and satisfaction.

In addition to its investments in AI, Meta has also announced ongoing investments in Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) that will allow businesses to achieve better performance without compromising people’s privacy.

Chaola Nachampassak, APAC Performance Lead at Global Agency, Meta, highlighted the significance of creating an effective data strategy that balances personalization and respecting people’s privacy choices. She explained that the Meta Advantage Suite – a suite of automated solutions driven by advanced machine learning models – can utilize first-party data to automate a campaign or an entire workflow from end-to-end, thus streamlining the process and improving efficiency.

As consumer privacy protection becomes increasingly crucial, obtaining detailed insights presents a greater challenge. Therefore, advertisers must collaborate with domain experts and adopt AI/Machine Learning technologies to achieve better outcomes.

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