8,000 Meta employees will be let go in a month while Zuck builds an AI clone of himself to talk to workers

As promised before, 2026 will be the final year at Meta for many employees. The first round of layoffs will start on May 20 (which is precisely a month away) and as many as 8,000 jobs could be axed.

Then, there'll be more layoffs

Per the latest Reuters report, this won't be the end of it. Rather, it's just the beginning. The 8,000 axed positions in the first round (8,000 jobs is about 10% of Meta's global workforce) will be followed by another round of layoffs in H2 of 2026.

It's not yet clear whether this will take place in the summer or in the fall, nor has anyone disclosed how many workers Zuckerberg's company will axe next time.

It depends on this

The reason for the lack of clarity (about the second round of layoffs) might be attributed to the fact that no one yet knows how much AI will evolve… and how fast.

So, if AI really takes off and starts being much more useful and potent, more people will lose their Meta jobs as a result.

Given previous reports about a 20% scaledown of its global workforce, Meta will probably axe another 8,000 (or more) jobs in the second half of the year.

Layoffs left and right

While Zuckerberg is busy enhancing the AI aspect of his company, rivals are not sitting idle, either. As you've probably heard, Amazon has also axed 30,000 jobs (corporate employees), which is 10% of its white-collar workers.

Per some online tracking tools, more than 73,000 employees have lost their jobs so far in 2026. For all of 2024, the figure was 153,000. And we've just finished Q1.

The AI clone of Zuckerberg

Bright future awaits those who avoid getting the ax at Meta: soon, there might be an AI version of Zuckerberg that they'll be able to talk to.

Meta is reportedly developing this AI clone of its boss and it'll be able respond to questions using his voice, tone and past statements. The project is said to try to strengthen employee connection with leadership and reflects the company's broader shift toward AI-driven tools over its earlier metaverse ambitions.

Zuckerberg is said to be directly involved in training the digital clone, which could later inspire similar AI personas for influencers and creators.

Maybe this is what hell looks like, who knows.

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