Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that artificial intelligence (AI) agent development is not progressing as quickly as hoped. He acknowledged that results have fallen short of expectations, despite shifting the company's business strategy from augmented reality to AI and carrying out a sweeping reorganization. Still, he expects the effects of AI investment to materialize in earnest within the next three to six months.
According to Reuters on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said at an internal town hall meeting that day, "At least over the past four months, the pace of agent development has not accelerated in the way we expected," adding that "the company's bet on the new organizational structure has not yet borne fruit." The AI agents he referred to mean automated systems that perform various tasks.
Meta has pushed a sweeping reorganization with AI at the center of management. In May, the company cut about 10% of its staff while reassigning roughly 7,000 employees to AI-dedicated units. The move was aimed at securing the funding needed for AI infrastructure investment and accelerating AI-based work efficiency.
But the results have not appeared as much as hoped, according to Zuckerberg's assessment. "When we were preparing the reorganization in January and February, the biggest concern among top management during the discussions was that we might not adapt quickly to the changes," he explained, adding that "management was very optimistic about the pace of development of tools such as Anthropic's 'Claude Code.'" He said the reorganization, including large-scale layoffs, "did not proceed as smoothly as we thought."
Even so, Zuckerberg predicted that the point at which the results of AI investment become visible is not far off. "I expect Meta will begin to feel more meaningful results from AI investment within the next three to six months," he said. Meta, which has set its sights on developing artificial superintelligence (ASI), has forecast capital expenditure (CAPEX) of up to $145 billion (221 trillion won) this year alone. The company invested $39.2 billion in 2024 and $72.2 billion in 2025.
At the town hall meeting, there was also an explanation of an employee activity tracking program that recently sparked controversy. Meta Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Andrew Bosworth said that an internal investigation into software that records employees' mouse movements and digital activity confirmed that employee data was not used for AI training. Meta suspended operation of the program last month and launched an investigation after concerns were raised about the possible exposure of sensitive information.
Bosworth said that even if the program is resumed after the investigation is completed, it will operate on an "opt-in" basis, in which employees choose for themselves whether to participate. "Those who want to participate can contribute to human research, and there will be no disadvantage for those who do not want to participate," he said.
