Meta Platforms has restructured its artificial intelligence operations, creating two separate units — an AI Products team headed by Connor Hayes and the AGI Foundations unit jointly run by Ahmad Al-Dahle and Amir Frenkel. The move comes as Meta is delayed getting its latest foundation model Llama 4 Behemoth to market and has also seen several key AI engineers depart. The idea is that dividing a single large organization into two smaller divisions will speed product development and add flexibility as Meta faces tough competition from top companies such as Google and OpenAI, as well as social companies X and TikTok.

“The AI Products team will be responsible for the Meta AI assistant, Meta’s AI Studio and AI features within Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp” while “the AGI Foundations unit will cover a range of technologies, including the company’s Llama models, as well as efforts to improve capabilities in reasoning, multimedia and voice,” explains Axios.

The Fundamental AI Research unit, known as FAIR, will continue to operate outside the new structure, “though one specific team working on multimedia is moving to the new AGI Foundations team,” according to Axios.

“This marks Meta’s second major AI reorganization since CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s 2023 attempt to ‘turbocharge’ generative AI efforts, which saw the company fall further behind rivals despite early promise,” writes Computerworld.

Two weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal wrote that Meta was delaying the release of its new flagship Llama Behemoth model as “engineers are struggling to significantly improve the capabilities” amidst internal debate “about whether improvements over prior versions are significant enough to justify public release.”

Computerworld says Llama 4 “has struggled with reasoning and mathematical tasks,” leaving Meta “playing catch-up in the race toward artificial general intelligence, despite its early open-source advantages.”

Listing cost as an open-source benefit, and citing “initiatives such as Llama for Startups and the recent Llama API launch,” Computerworld concludes “these initiatives alone may not be enough to win enterprise trust” as the AI world shifts focus from wow factor to productivity.

“Unlike Microsoft’s turnkey OpenAI integration or Google’s enterprise-ready Vertex AI platform, Meta lacks both the sales infrastructure and compliance pedigree for regulated industries,” Computerworld writes.

While there are no layoffs or talent departures as a result of the change, Business Insider reported earlier this month that “out of the 14 creators of Meta’s AI model Llama, 11 have left the company” including five defecting to French startup Mistral AI.