# The Wind is Shifting! Meta Cuts 16,000 More Jobs, Top Wall Street Analyst: This Isn't Panic, It's the Beginning of AI Efficiency Crushing Traditional Roles

Meta plans to cut about 20% of its staff again, involving nearly 16,000 employees. This will be the largest round of layoffs since the end of 2022. On the surface, this is to balance massive investments in AI infrastructure and improve operational efficiency.

But Wall Street’s view is more far-reaching. Analysts point out that this round of layoffs may not be simply due to cost concerns but signals that Meta is successfully transforming itself into an “AI-first” company. If this transformation proves effective, its competitors could face tough challenges.

Despite heavy investments in AI, Meta has yet to release models that lead the industry like Google or OpenAI. However, Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik believes that Meta’s aggressive shift toward a top-down AI company could give it an edge in a critical area. This leadership is not just about cutting-edge models but about deeply integrating AI into core business operations, creating an insurmountable competitive barrier.

Shmulik wrote in a report that Meta has already demonstrated significant returns from deploying AI into core workloads. If the company can fundamentally redesign its operational system to truly make AI central, its potential advantages in cost and performance will be hard to surpass.

Data supports the efficiency improvement claim. Over the past few years, Meta’s per capita revenue has continued to grow and surpassed Amazon last year. Meanwhile, the company’s per capita capital expenditure and R&D investment are significantly higher than peers, which may explain the need for layoffs to optimize structure. The market responded positively, with the company’s stock rising about 2% after the news.

Internal reforms are also underway. Reports indicate that starting this year, Meta will introduce an “AI-driven impact” score in employee performance evaluations and track team usage of AI tools. This is not an isolated case; companies like Atlassian and Block also cited AI as a reason for recent layoffs.

This raises a question: is there an “AI greenwashing”? That is, companies using AI as a fashionable excuse for layoffs to hide financial issues or the aftermath of overhiring during the pandemic. Shmulik admits this possibility exists but also emphasizes that layoffs could equally mean the company has begun to see real efficiency gains from AI.

Looking back from late 2022 to early 2023, Zuckerberg announced the “Year of Efficiency,” cutting over 20,000 jobs and successfully boosting the then-dormant stock price. Shmulik believes that if Meta can replicate this cycle again in the AI era, it will set a template for truly “AI-first” companies.

He wrote that if a major company can draw a blueprint for an AI-enabled organization, others will quickly try to imitate it. This could trigger a series of hasty transformations, immature strategies, and passive reorganizations across the industry ecosystem. For tech industry practitioners and investors, this is not just about layoffs but could be the prelude to an efficiency revolution.

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