2026 will be the year AI 'dramatically' changes the way Meta works, says Mark Zuckerberg

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

• AI tools at Meta are boosting productivity and enabling smaller teams
• Meta plans to launch new AI models and products in the coming months
• Meta plans to double AI spending to $135B by 2026.

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Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on January 28 said that 2026 will be the year that artificial intelligence (AI) starts to "dramatically" change the way the social media giant works.

"Our north star is building the best place for individuals to make a massive impact. To do this, we're investing in AI-native tooling so individuals at Meta can get more done. We’re elevating individual contributors, and flattening teams," Zuckerberg said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.

AI agents to help build new products

The Meta chief noted that the company is "starting to see projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person."

AI agents are also "really beginning to work," unlocking the ability to build completely new products and transform how the company works, he said.

"We're already starting to see the people who adopt them are being significantly more productive. There's a big delta between the people who do it and do it well and the people who don't," Zuckerberg noted. "I think that's going to be a profound dynamic across the whole sector in terms of productivity and efficiency with which we can run these companies."

In December, Meta acquired Singapore-based Manus for a reported $2 billion. The startup has built a popular autonomous general-purpose agent that can independently execute complex tasks like market research, coding, and data analysis, which the tech giant aims to integrate across all its products.

By harnessing these tools, Zuckerberg expects to see a "real acceleration" in the amount of output the company can generate over time. However, he noted that it is hard to predict an exact time frame or what shape the organisation will ultimately take.

"I want to make sure that as many of those very talented people as possible choose Meta as the place where they can make the greatest impact," he said. "You will be able to use these agentic tools anywhere, but you will only be able to come and ship personalised products to billions of people if you join a company like Meta."

Meta's AI hiring spree

Over the past year or so, Meta has gone on an aggressive hiring spree, offering billion-dollar pay packages to lure some of the most sought-after AI talent from rivals such as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Apple.

This was part of Meta resetting its AI strategy, following a series of setbacks, including the disappointing performance of its flagship AI model Llama 4, delays in launching more-advanced AI models and the departure of several top researchers.

The company invested $14.3 billion in data-labeling startup Scale AI for a 49 percent stake in June and appointed its CEO, Alexandr Wang, as chief AI officer.

Meta also restructured its AI division and established Meta Superintelligence Labs, which brings together the firm’s foundation models, product, and Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) teams, along with a new lab called TBD Lab that is focused on developing the next generation of its AI models.

The company laid off around 600 people from its AI division in October 2025, in a bid to operate more nimbly. Longtime chief AI scientist Yann LeCun also recently left the firm to form his own startup, AMI Labs, that will focus on building “world models”

Earlier this month, Meta cut 10 percent of employees from its Reality Labs division, impacting more than 1,000 jobs to reallocate resources from its ambitious but costly metaverse and virtual reality products toward AI glasses, wearables and mobile features.

New models, products soon

Zuckerberg said the tech giant plans to start shipping new models and products in the coming months; however, he tempered expectations.

"I expect our first models will be good but, more importantly, will show the rapid trajectory that we're on. And then I expect us to steadily push the frontier over the course of the year as we continue to release new models," he said.

Meta also signalled a massive escalation in its AI spending, projecting a capital expenditure outlay for 2026 at $115 billion to $135 billion, nearly double the $72 billion it spent last year.

For the fourth-quarter ended December 31, 2025, Meta's total revenue rose to $59.89 billion, up 24 percent from a year earlier. Profit increased by 9.2 percent to $22.76 billion.

Zuckerberg said that more than 3.5 billion people now use at least one of Meta's apps everyday. This includes two billion daily active users each on Facebook and WhatsApp and nearly two billion users on Instagram.