Meta wanted to cut 60% of staff with AI. The plan stalled

Meta told teams last year they'd shrink by 60% and replace headcount with AI. The plan was supposed to run through 2026, using the company's own models to handle customer support, code, and other work. Now it's stalling. The reason is simple: the models aren't ready. Meta's CTO has warned the team that the AI isn't up to the job yet, and the cuts are on hold.

This is a real lesson for the rest of the industry. The pitch from Silicon Valley was that AI would make thousands of jobs obsolete overnight. The reality is slower. These models can write code and draft emails, but they can't yet handle the messy work that actually moves a company forward. Meta's own engineers are telling the company the same thing: you can't just swap humans for a chatbot and call it a day.

The bigger picture here is that the AI hype cycle has a pattern — big promises, then a reality check. We're in the check part. Companies are still hiring for real work. The models are improving, but they're not the silver bullet everyone pretended they were.

Why this matters for us: the people who got replaced by AI at Meta are still out of work, and the companies promising easy automation are still figuring out how it actually works — so don't believe the hype when someone tells you the machine will take your job next month.