Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees during a town hall meeting on July 2-3, 2026, that the development of AI agents had not accelerated as the company had hoped over the previous four months. He said, "the trajectory of the agentic development over at least the last four months hasn’t really accelerated in the way that we expected" [1]. Zuckerberg expressed optimism that Meta's heavy AI investments would begin yielding improvements within three to six months, stating the company still remains on a "journey to superintelligence... that journey will take hard work" [2, 3].

Earlier in 2026, Meta laid off some 8,000 employees, roughly 10% of its corporate workforce. Around 7,000 engineers were reassigned to AI-related groups such as one called Agent Transformation [2, 3]. Zuckerberg admitted the layoffs were not as "clean" as they should have been and occurred amid worries that Meta was not adapting quickly enough to technological changes [2].

Meta is investing tens of billions of dollars in AI infrastructure and talent, with projected spending potentially reaching $145 billion this year alone [2]. Despite this, internal morale remains low. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth described employee morale as "probably one of the worst it's ever been in Meta's 20-year history" [3].

A mandatory AI training program collecting employees' keystrokes and mouse movements to train Meta's AI models was paused last month due to internal leaks and employee backlash. Bosworth announced the program would be opt-in only if resumed [3]. Engineers reassigned to AI groups were also given the option to leave the Applied AI task force, a move dubbed "the undraft" by workers [3].

Zuckerberg also reflected on prior strategic errors, lamenting Meta's heavy focus on the metaverse and acknowledging that the initial AI boom left Meta behind its competitors [1]. The company continues to balance the need for speed in AI development with concerns about employee trust and morale [3].

In early 2026, Meta executives had expressed worry that the company was moving too slowly to adapt in AI and began restructuring as a result [1]. A December 2025 success with Anthropic's Claude AI influenced the company's AI approach [1].

Meta's next key milestone is the projected timeframe for AI progress improvements Zuckerberg highlighted, expected in the next three to six months [2, 3].