Meta Platforms is merging the teams behind Facebook and Messenger into one unit as the company prepares for layoffs across the business next week. Under the change, the head of Messenger, Loredana Crisan, will move to the company’s generative artificial intelligence group, while Facebook’s chief Tom Alison will also oversee Messenger, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation.
Meta is also shuffling its generative AI group, which is responsible for the company’s key bets in AI, including its flagship AI model Llama and its Meta AI assistant. Ryan Cairns and Ning Li, engineering leaders in the group, will both move to other parts of Meta, according to one of the people. Both joined the generative AI group in November 2023, according to their profiles on LinkedIn.
The reorganizations are among several recent internal shakeups as Meta gears up for another round of mass layoffs, which are due to be announced Monday. Last week, Meta broke up the business unit inside Reality Labs, the department that develops augmented and virtual reality technology, and moved most of the work under Meta’s Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan.
A Meta spokesperson said the company continues to make “organizational changes when appropriate because they help us improve our products and better serve the people and businesses who use them.”