Adam Mosseri: Building Instagram for an AI world

Adam Mosseri is the Head of Instagram, where he oversees an app used by over 3 billion people. He also leads the team building Threads. Adam has run Instagram for longer than its founders did, after taking over from Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2018. A designer by training, he spent over 15 years at Meta, starting as a designer on Facebook’s mobile app, rising to lead Facebook’s News Feed, and eventually chosen to lead Instagram. During his tenure, Instagram’s user base has more than tripled. *In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:* 1. How the canonical product team structure is changing in 2026, from baker’s-dozen specialist teams to lean pods of four to six generalists 2. The rise of the “product staff” role—a blending of PM, design, data science, and research into one generalist operator 3. Why Adam is bullish on designers even as functional boundaries dissolve, and which roles are most at risk 4. What the Instagram algorithm knows about you, and why it’s only now catching up to what people assumed it knew years ago 5. Why the rise of AI-generated content is a tailwind for Instagram, and how the company is thinking about creator identity in a synthetic-content world 6. The two biggest product failures of Adam’s career—Facebook Home and the first version of Reels *Brought to you by:* WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more: https://workos.com/lenny Mercury—Radically different banking, now with Command: https://mercury.com/ *Episode transcript:* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/adam-mosseri-ai-is-a-tailwind-for *Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts:* https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0 *Where to find Adam Mosseri:* • X: https://x.com/mosseri • LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mosseri • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mosseri • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@mosseri *Where to find Lenny:* • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ *In this episode, we cover:* (00:00) Introduction to Adam Mosseri (02:09) How product teams are changing inside Meta (05:48) Blurring roles and career anxiety (14:01) Hiring traits that matter now (16:48) How AI is resetting who succeeds at work (19:38) How Meta thinks about token spend and AI costs (23:23) Where human judgment still matters (25:56) Why AI is not automatically great at strategy (30:36) Why great product leaders are curators (34:23) What Instagram’s algorithm actually knows about you (38:08) Why chronological feeds often disappoint users (40:56) Why AI content may be a tailwind for Instagram (43:42) The future of AI and human content in the feed (48:00) What Adam admires about other social platforms (52:05) How he handles public criticism (56:31) Lessons from the Instagram feed redesign backlash (01:00:21) Adam’s biggest failure: Instagram on iPad (01:03:03) His approach to kids, screens, and social media (01:06:56) What Adam wants listeners to remember *Referenced:* • What happens after coding is solved? | Fiona Fung (Manager of the Claude Code and Cowork Teams): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-the-most-ai-pilled-engineering • Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-code • Claude Cowork: https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-cowork • Head of Claude Code: What happens after coding is solved | Boris Cherny: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/head-of-claude-code-what-happens • A rational conversation on where AI is actually going | Benedict Evans: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/a-rational-conversation-on-where • OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai • Mythos: https://www.anthropic.com/claude/mythos • Fable: https://www.anthropic.com/claude/fable • Pluralistic: The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI: https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble • Plastic Dream Sequence on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plasticdreamsequence • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com • Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal • Facebook Home: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Home _Production and marketing by https://penname.co/._ _For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected]._ Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.