Adam Mosseri: AI is a tailwind for authenticity

Adam Mosseri says Instagram is moving from a roughly dozen-person specialist team toward “pods” of four to six more generalist engineers, a product staff lead, and specialists brought in when the work requires them. A product staff lead is an evolution of the product manager role, using newer tools to take on some design, research, and data-science work. The typical pod has a six- or seven-person core, which Mosseri says can coordinate faster and make decisions with less committee process.

The change reflects a mix of AI-enabled productivity and a simpler organizational advantage: fewer people need to coordinate. Mosseri does not describe specialists as obsolete. Instead, teams can automate or simplify mechanical work such as basic funnel analysis, while bringing in senior or unusually creative specialists for pricing strategy, novel experiences, or deeper research and design questions.

That shift can make roles less distinct. A product staff lead may cover routine analysis or design work that previously required a dedicated function, while the team calls on specialist expertise when the stakes or novelty warrant it. Mosseri presents this as a reconfiguration of the team, not a claim that all specialist work has disappeared.

Mosseri argues that when it becomes easier to build, deciding what deserves to be built matters more. He sees taste as a durable strength for designers because it is difficult to imagine automating away, even as engineers, product staff, and generalists take on more design tasks. Rachitsky adds that AI-generated work can have recognizable product-specific styles, while he wonders why demand for designers has not grown alongside cheaper production.

Mosseri expects some strong designers and data scientists to move into product staff roles. In his account, the strongest cross-functional contributors combine deep craft in one area with enough business and product judgment to make informed decisions elsewhere. He also checks his own bias: he started as a designer and later changed roles. The conversation therefore leaves room for both paths—specialists who deepen their craft and practitioners who broaden their reach.