Meta veteran discusses AI, future of jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg

Naomi Gleit has worked at Meta for almost 20 years. She was the company's 29th employee, and now she is the longest-serving staff member apart from founder Mark Zuckerberg. She has watched Facebook grow into Meta and has weathered many storms and controversies. Gleit told the BBC that working at Meta has always been her dream job, but her family needed some convincing at first. Her mother wanted her to work for Lehman Brothers, which collapsed in 2008. Meta has also faced problems such as privacy scandals, election rigging accusations, and issues with teen mental health and online harms. Gleit says the company has sometimes not met its own standards, but she feels proud of many things. She believes the motto "move fast and break things" was misunderstood. She also thinks Mark Zuckerberg's reputation as a cold, robotic bad guy is unfair. She describes him as a great husband and father to three kids, and an "awesome" boss. Meta is now focusing on AI agents, which are like advanced chatbots that can carry out tasks. The company plans to put these agents into WhatsApp to help businesses run customer chats and gain insights. Gleit says the agents can be "superpowers" for small firms, and safety is the priority. She is optimistic that AI will create new jobs, just as the internet created her own job as a product manager. Meta has recently laid off 10% of its staff.