Mark ZuckerbergAdmits Meta's AI agent has not reached its set targets despite investing over $145 billion.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Meta, acknowledged during a recent town hall meeting with employees that the company's AI agent development has not progressed as quickly as he anticipated. This comes amid internal criticism following Meta's layoffs of thousands of employees in May 2026 and a massive AI investment of $145 billion (approximately 4.83 trillion baht) just this year.
According to a Reuters report citing audio recordings from the meeting, Zuckerberg stated that over at least the past four months, the company's AI agent development has not advanced as quickly as the team had hoped.
Zuckerbergalso admitted that the timing of the current organizational restructuring was miscalculated, and the recent layoffs were not as smooth as expected. He added that the plan has yet to achieve its intended results.
Previously, The New York Times reported on 19 May 2026 that Meta laid off thousands of employees as part of the company's AI strategic realignment.
Meta's case reflects a wider trend among technology firms finding that replacing human employees with AI is much more challenging than anticipated, with some companies even rehiring previously laid-off staff.
At the same town hall, Meta executives also addressed a sensitive issue regarding an employee behavior tracking project designed to record all computer usage for AI model training. Meta suspended this project last month following an internal leak of sensitive employee data.
Andrew Bosworth, Meta's Chief Technology Officer, pledged that if this project resumes in the future, participation will be strictly voluntary. He explained at the town hall that employees comfortable with supporting this data collection can opt in, while those who are not comfortable will face no pressure.
. Zuckerbergremains optimistic that Meta could see significant returns from its substantial AI investments within the next 3 to 6 months.