Meta to 'dramatically change' with AI, Zuckerberg says

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg says artificial intelligence (AI) tools used by technology workers are improving so much that just one engineer can now do the work it formerly took a whole team to achieve.

During a call with financial analysts on Wednesday to discuss the Facebook-owner's 2025 financial results, Zuckerberg said he is expecting "2026 to be the year that AI dramatically changes the way we work."

Like other big tech firms, Meta has regularly cut thousands of roles at a time in recent years in an effort to remove layers of management and streamline operations.

Zuckerberg's comments seemed to hint at further layoffs at the tech giant.

"A big delta"

"We're starting to see projects that used to take big teams now be accomplished by a single, very talented person," he said.

Already this year, Meta has laid off several hundred workers mainly in its Reality Labs division, a part of the company that focuses on its "metaverse" ambitions, hardware products and AI initiatives.

Zuckerberg said Meta is investing more across the company in AI tools that help employees like software engineers complete more work.

As workers use the tools to become "significantly more productive," he said there is "a big delta between the people who do it and do it well and the people who don't."

"What we were talking about is, I think it's very hard for anyone exactly to predict what the shape of how organisations working is going to feel, but I just think the fact that agents are really starting to work now is quite profound," he added.

The company is aggressively spending on AI projects and related infrastructure, pouring $77bn (£55bn) last year into its attempt to get ahead of the AI boom.

Meta said on Wednesday that it expects to spend twice that amount this year.

His comments came as Meta announced figures for the last three months of 2025 that showed expenses rose faster than revenues, which squeezed profit margins.

Meta shares were around 7.5% higher in extended trading in New York after the announcement.

Some in the industry warn that such major investments risk creating an AI bubble, similar to one seen in the dotcom boom that peaked in 2000.

Chuck Robbins, chairman and chief executive of Cisco Systems, told the BBC that while AI could end up "bigger than the internet", the current market is probably a bubble and some companies "won't make it".

JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon has voiced similar concerns, while Google CEO Sundar Pichai said there was some "irrationality" to the AI boom.

Sam Altman, whose company OpenAI kicked off the current obsession with AI in the tech industry, was more direct. "Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes," he said last year.