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Inside Meta’s push to turn employees into “AI builders” and reorganize teams around small pods

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Meta is rebranding some employees as “AI builders” and organizing them into AI-native “pods,” according to a leaked memo obtained by Business Insider.

The memo described an overhaul of roles, titles, and team structures across a 1,000-employee team within Meta’s Reality Labs. It’s part of a broader, aggressive push by Meta to adopt small teams and use AI.

The pilot program was announced last month within the Reality Labs team that builds developer tools. Everyone in the division will now have one of three titles: AI Builder, AI Pod Lead, or AI Org Lead. That’s to encourage a shift toward a flatter organization, a structure that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has advocated.

“Our ultimate goal is to drive a step change in engineering productivity and product quality,” the memo reads. “To achieve this, we’re fundamentally rewiring how we operate, how we are structured, and how we support each other.”

When asked for comment, Meta referred Business Insider to comments earlier this year from Zuckerberg that 2026 is the year AI will begin to “dramatically change the way we work,” with projects that once required large teams potentially handled by one, “very talented” person.

According to the memo, each pod consists of a small group of AI builders focused on specific outcomes, often working across disciplines. For example, engineers could take on design work, depending on the task. Some Meta employees have already begun referring to themselves as AI builders on LinkedIn, Business Insider previously reported.

These pods are led by Pod Leads, who oversee day-to-day operations. They are, in turn, overseen by Org Leads, who also manage performance reviews and oversee promotions — processes that will be supported by unspecified “AI systems.”

The memo said that the overall team size will remain the same under the new structure.

Meta laid off hundreds of staff on Wednesday, and this cut affected staff in Reality Labs, among other teams. A Meta spokesperson said the reorganization is not related to the cuts.

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Salesforce made a new round of job cuts. These teams were affected.

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  • Salesforce cut part of its workforce earlier this month.
  • Staff in teams across marketing, product, and data were let go.
  • The cut involved fewer than 1,000 roles, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Salesforce made cuts to its workforce at the beginning of this month.

The cut involved fewer than 1,000 roles, according to a person familiar with the matter.

At least nine employees posted on LinkedIn that their roles had been eliminated. Affected roles included marketing, product management, data analytics, and Salesforce’s Agentforce AI product, according to LinkedIn posts and profiles, as well as two employees who spoke to Business Insider.

The layoffs also come amid an executive shake-up at Salesforce, in which the company appointed six new leaders to replace five high-profile leaders who have announced departures since December.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in August that the company used AI agents to reduce its support staff from 9,000 to 5,000.

Have a tip? Contact Ashley Stewart via email at astewart@businessinsider.com or Signal at +1-425-344-8242. Contact Charles Rollet via email at crollet@businessinsider.com or on Signal at charlesrollet.12 or +1-628-282-2811. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




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Ben Horowitz says that investing teams shouldn’t be ‘too much bigger than basketball teams’

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Ben Horowitz is a big fan of tiny teams.

On an episode of the A16z podcast, the Andreessen Horowitz cofounder shared how his venture capital firm maintains a lean operation despite being one of the world’s largest.

“An investing team shouldn’t be too much bigger than a basketball team,” he said, referring to advice he got from famed American investor David Swensen in 2009.

He added, “A basketball team is five people who start, and the reason for that is the conversation around the investments really needs to be a conversation.”

Horowitz cofounded the Silicon Valley VC firm with Marc Andreessen in 2009. Before A16Z, he ran enterprise software company Opsware, which Hewlett-Packard acquired.

A16z has backed marquee companies including Meta, Airbnb, GitHub, and Coinbase.

The VC said he always kept the basketball team size in mind but also knew that the firm had to expand to keep up with how “software was eating the world,” his signature phrase. The solution was to split the firm into different investment verticals.

To maintain good communication, staff attend other teams’ meetings when investment themes overlap.

The firm also organizes a two to three-day offsite twice a year, “with not much agenda.”

Horowitz said that people who join them from other firms say that A16Z has “less politics” than firms with 10 or 11 people because his firm has a culture where politicking is “disincentivized.”

A16z might have been early to the tiny team trend, but it’s catching on fast with VCs and startups across the world.

Startups are actively seeking to stay small, with many having fewer than 10 people. Founders told Business Insider that AI and vibe coding tools have boosted their productivity, allowing them to get things done with far fewer people. Less politics and bureaucracy are also big pluses, they say.

“We’re going to see 10-person companies with billion-dollar valuations pretty soon,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in February 2024. “In my little group chat with my tech CEO friends, there’s this betting pool for the first year there is a one-person billion-dollar company, which would’ve been unimaginable without AI. And now will happen.”




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