Dive Brief:

• Tech giant Meta Platforms plans to ramp up hiring to support “priority areas” such as artificial intelligence and infrastructure following massive layoffs that are still underway, the company’s CFO said.

• AI was a dominant theme of the Facebook and Instagram owner’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, in which the company reported its first sales increase in nearly a year.

• “We've just really been investing in using AI for a long time to improve our ad systems,” Meta CFO Susan Li said during the call. The company is now seeing that work pay off in conjunction with stabilization in the macroeconomic environment, she added.

Dive Insight:

Meta reported $28.6 billion in total revenues for the first quarter, an increase of 3% year-over-year. The revenue bump follows three consecutive quarters of declines and beat analyst expectations. 

CEO Mark Zuckerberg largely attributed the turn around to AI investments that have enhanced services such as its TikTok lookalike, Reels, resulting in increased advertising revenue. The news also follows the company’s recent focus on organizational “efficiency,” which has included workforce reductions.

Meta has announced a series of layoffs in recent months impacting more than 20,000 workers and is also in the midst of a hiring freeze.

“The goals of our efficiency work are to make us a stronger technology company that builds better products faster, and to improve our financial performance to give us the space in a difficult environment to execute our ambitious long term vision,” Zuckerberg said during the call.

The company plans to resume hiring after completing layoffs in April and May and expects employee headcount growth in excess of 1% to 2% in 2024, according to Li.