Meta just told some of its former managers to become managers again

Meta has reportedly asked some individual contributors in its 7,000-person Applied AI (AAI) division to return to managerial roles, according to Business Insider, which cited four people with knowledge of the matter; Meta declined a request for comment. Meta formed the AAI division in March to support its superintelligence efforts with a "flat" structure of up to 50 individual contributors per manager, and the reversal follows the company's 2023 Year of Efficiency management cuts and a 10% workforce reduction earlier this year that targeted managers. The shift runs counter to the "Great Flattening" trend Meta helped popularize, as Gallup data shows the average number of people reporting to managers rose from 10.9 in 2024 to 12.1 in 2025 and is up nearly 50% since 2013.

Meta may have been a bit too enthusiastic in its highly publicized campaign to reduce middle management https://www.fastcompany.com/91531056/the-middle-managers-ai-survival-guide . The social media giant has reportedly been asking some individual contributors in its Applied AI https://www.fastcompany.com/section/artificial-intelligence AAI division if they would like to return to managerial roles, according to Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-asks-some-ai-employees-to-become-managers-again-2026-9 , citing four people with “knowledge of the matter.” Meta declined a request for comment. Meta formed the AAI division in March https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-to-create-new-applied-ai-engineering-organization-in-reality-labs-division-d41c4a69 to support its superintelligence efforts. Meta said the division’s teams would have a “flat” structure, with up to 50 individual contributors for each manager. Some individual contributors in the 7,000-person unit had previously been in management. The return of some of those workers to supervisory roles is particularly noteworthy given that Meta is closely associated with the corporate trend toward reducing bureaucracy, known colloquially as the “Great Flattening.” https://www.fastcompany.com/91496688/what-happens-to-middle-management-when-ai-flattens-your-organization-ai-middle-management Claiming “flatter is faster,” it aggressively eliminated management layers during its Year of Efficiency in 2023. Managers were also targeted as part of its 10% workforce cuts earlier this year, according to an analysis by Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-layoffs-managers-software-engineers-ai-spending-2026-6 . Across the economy, companies have made similar changes in recent years. Overall, the average number of people reporting to managers has increased from 10.9 in 2024 to 12.1 in 2025 and is up nearly 50% since 2013, according to Gallup https://www.gallup.com/workplace/700718/span-control-optimal-team-size-managers.aspx . Uber announced last week https://www.fastcompany.com/91601567/the-great-flattening-rolls-on-as-uber-lays-off-middle-managers that it was reducing its workforce by 10%, or about 3,300 workers, and reducing the number of employees who sit 7 or more layers from the CEO by 20%. It said the cuts were intended to make the company “simpler and faster” and involved “removing layers, simplifying team structures, refining our global location strategy, and focusing our people and investments.” The new reassignments are not the first personnel changes in Meta’s AAI division. The company previously allowed some employees added to the division to leave amid complaints that they had been “drafted” in against their wishes.