Adam Mosseri: AI is a tailwind for authenticity
In a Nutshell
Adam Mosseri argues that AI boosts productivity but makes human taste, judgment, and curation more valuable than ever. Instagram's product teams are shifting to small "pods" with generalist product staff roles, while the platform will label AI content rather than ban it because authenticity will become a bigger differentiator. Success with AI requires being clear-eyed about its strengths and limits, staying curious, and focusing leaders on vision and strategy over execution.
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Taste matters a ton. In a world where it's easier to build things, it's more important to make sure that your time is spent figuring out what you should be building in the first place. The people who will make the most of AI are the ones who are clear-eyed about what AI is good at and what it's not good at, and also have an instinct or a nose for what it will be good at and not good at in the future.
People assume that there's a much more detailed semantic understanding of everybody's interests and preferences in the algorithm than there is.
AI content is going to be a tailwind for Instagram, but it will be a challenge in a world where there's an abundance of synthetic content. People are going to seek out creativity and authenticity and people. Instagram should not filter out AI content, but should let users know if content is AI-generated.
Adam Mosseri is head of Instagram. Over three billion people use Instagram monthly, which is one in every three people alive. Prior to Instagram, Mosseri designed and led the early Facebook news feed. He also ran the team that built the Facebook ranking algorithm. Eight years ago, he took over Instagram from its founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. He's a designer turned product manager turned leader of Instagram.
The canonical team at a big company like Meta has changed significantly. For the longest time, the structure was two or three Android engineers, two or three iOS engineers, two or three server engineers, maybe a generalist, a PM, a designer, a data scientist, a researcher if you were lucky, and maybe that's about it—on the order of a baker's dozen. This structure existed because you want someone who can review code who is familiar with that codebase, and having these different specialized functions.
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