Woman Built AI Tool At Meta. Weeks Later, She Was Laid Off Too

Meta Layoffs: For months, employees at Meta were reportedly being pushed deeper into AI. Teams were being reshuffled. Managers were talking about speed, leaner structures, and smaller AI-first groups. Inside the company, the message seemed clear: adapt to the AI era or risk being left behind.

Then came the layoffs.

Now, a viral post on X is adding a deeply personal layer to that conversation.

The post, shared by a user named Julian, claims employees at Meta were first encouraged to build internal AI tools before job cuts began rolling out across teams. The post has already crossed nearly a million views and is now being widely discussed across social media, especially as Meta pushes aggressively into artificial intelligence.

While the claims in the post has not been independently verified, the timing has caught attention.

Meta recently began laying off employees across several regions, including Singapore, Europe, and the US. Thousands of workers reportedly started receiving termination emails on May 20, with some employees getting notices as early as 4 amlocal time.

According to Julian, Meta had organised a company-wide "AI week" a few months ago. During that period, regular work was allegedly paused and employees were asked to familiarise themselves with AI tools and workflows.

By the end of the exercise, workers were reportedly expected to create early versions of internal AI products that could later be developed further inside the company.

"Projects that were approved were chosen to continue further development with AI and engineers," the post said.

But it was the next part of the story that struck a nerve online.

Julian claimed his wife spent months refining one such AI product alongside senior leadership and engineers -- even while quietly fearing that the very tool she was helping build could eventually replace her own role.

"Fast forward to today: She's canned," the post added. 

The fear of job loss due to AI among white-collar workers is no longer limited to factory floors or repetitive jobs. It is slowly creeping into offices, tech campuses, meeting rooms, and engineering teams. The people building AI are beginning to wonder whether they are also training their replacements.

Across social media, users reacted with a mix of anger, anxiety, and resignation. Some called the story dystopian. Others said it felt inevitable.

There is no public evidence confirming that sequence of events at Meta. But the conversation around them reflects a growing unease across the tech industry.

According to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg, Meta's Head of People, Janelle Gale, said the company wants flatter teams and smaller AI-focused groups that can "move faster and with more ownership."

Reports suggest nearly 7,000 employees have already been reassigned to AI-focused teams and AI agent projects as Meta sharpens its focus on artificial intelligence.

For Mark Zuckerberg, AI appears to be the company's defining priority now. Reports indicate Meta could pour more than $100 billion into AI infrastructure and related technologies this year as competition intensifies with Google and OpenAI.

At the same time, the company is trying to steady nerves internally.

In a note sent to employees, Zuckerberg reportedly said he does not expect more "company-wide" layoffs this year, though he left room for targeted cuts in specific divisions. He also said Meta employees are increasingly working in smaller AI-native "pods" with reduced layers of management and bureaucracy.

Still, the anxiety inside the company appears difficult to ignore. As per reports, more than 1,000 employees recently signed a petition objecting to Meta collecting detailed device activity data for AI training purposes. Investors, too, are watching the spending carefully. Analysts quoted in Bloomberg estimates reportedly said the latest layoffs could save Meta around $3 billion -- a relatively small figure compared to the company's projected AI spending, which could reportedly reach $145 billion this year.

For workers across the tech industry, the viral post has become bigger than one company or one layoff cycle.