Meta Platforms Inc.Meta is voluntarily rehiring managers in its Applied AI unit, partially reversing prior management-layer cuts; no clear positive or negative driver for the stock.

Meta is quietly asking individual contributors in its Applied AI division whether they want to move back into manager roles, a partial reversal of the management-layer cuts it pursued over the past year. The move, reported by Business Insider and citing four people familiar with the matter, is voluntary and follows the creation of the Applied AI engineering division in 2026 to bridge Meta's AI research and product execution. Earlier this year Meta reassigned roughly 7,000 employees to the unit, including some who had previously held manager positions before becoming individual contributors. The retooling reverses, in part, a broader restructuring that included cutting about 10% of the workforce, roughly 8,000 employees, in May and scrapping plans to fill 6,000 open positions, with layoffs falling disproportionately on managers. Meta ended the second quarter with 75,472 employees, down 3% from the prior quarter, while second-quarter revenue rose 28% to $60.8 billion and total expenses climbed 55% to $42 billion. In July, 26 Meta employees sued the company, alleging it used internal AI systems and activity-monitoring data to disproportionately target workers on medical, parental, or family leave in the May cuts.
Meta Platforms Inc.Meta is voluntarily rehiring managers in its Applied AI unit, partially reversing prior management-layer cuts; no clear positive or negative driver for the stock.