Zuckerberg builds his own AI CEO as Meta eyes mass layoffs
Mark Zuckerberg is personally testing the future he envisions for Meta by building an AI agent to help run the company.
The so-called “CEO agent” is already assisting him in streamlining communications and other tasks, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The system, which is still in development, allows Zuckerberg to get information faster, a person familiar with the project told the newspaper.
For example, the agent can retrieve answers for him that he would typically only get by going through layers of people, the source said.
The experiment suggests that even top-level decision-making could soon be augmented, or partially replaced, by AI systems.
Zuckerberg has also returned to coding to be actively involved in Meta’s AI transition, according to The Wall Street Journal report.
Building an army of personal AIs
Zuckerberg’s approach is quickly expanding across Meta as employees adopt their own AI agents, the report said. Some workers are using My Claw, an AI agent that helps employees navigate internal chats and files and automatically coordinates with colleagues.
Meta employees are also experimenting with “Second Brain,” a hybrid chatbot-agent built on Claude that can search and manage project documents. Its creator says it is “meant to be like an AI chief of staff.”
The company has also seen the emergence of internal spaces where employees’ agents talk to each other autonomously. These experiments point toward a workplace where AI becomes the default interface between people and information.
Working for Meta harks back to the company’s early, experimental days when Facebook embraced the motto “move fast and break things.”
Shrinking teams and speeding output
Meta is restructuring around the idea that AI can reduce the need for traditional management layers. Teams in Meta’s new AI-native groups are extremely flat, with some reporting structures including up to 50 individual contributors per manager.
Maher Saba, the Meta executive in charge of the new applied AI organization, said in an internal post: “We’re designing this org to be AI native from day one.”
And while some employees describe the atmosphere in the company as reminiscent of its early days, others are worried about what adopting AI tools will mean for their employment.
Check if your data has been leaked
Zuckerberg said on an earnings call in January: “We’re elevating individual contributors and flattening teams. If we do this, we’re going to get a lot more done.”
Internally, AI use is no longer optional. Employees’ adoption of these tools is now factored into performance reviews.
Meta’s internal AI push comes as reports suggest the company could cut up to 20% of its workforce, following earlier layoffs during its “year of efficiency,” when tens of thousands of roles were eliminated.
