Recently, Meta announced a significant personnel restructuring: Vishal Shah, the former head of Meta’s Metaverse division, will be transferred to Meta’s Superintelligence Lab to serve as Vice President of AI Products, reporting directly to Nat Friedman.

This marks the latest executive reshuffle within Meta’s AI division.

The move comes shortly after Vibes—a video app led by Friedman—was quickly overtaken by competitors.

Reassigning Shah, who boasts extensive product management experience, to support Friedman is clearly intended to accelerate the more mature implementation of Meta AI’s products.

Shah is a 10-year veteran of Meta with a distinguished track record. As a long-serving deputy to Mark Zuckerberg, he has earned Zuckerberg’s deep trust and reliance.

Shah joined Instagram (then part of Facebook) in 2015 and served as Instagram’s Head of Product from 2018 to 2021. During his tenure leading Instagram, he focused on product strategy and user experience, spearheading the direction of key initiatives such as Instagram Shopping (e-commerce) and Reels (short-form videos).

In 2021, when Facebook pivoted to the metaverse and rebranded as Meta, Zuckerberg appointed Shah as Head of Meta’s Metaverse division, tasking him with leading the development of Horizon Worlds, a virtual world platform.

Friedman stated that his team will now focus on building flagship AI products like Meta AI, while business units such as Instagram and WhatsApp will leverage the company’s models to develop various AI-driven experiences.

Commenting on the personnel adjustment, Friedman said, “We need to be not just an AI team, but an AI company. Shah will play a critical role in driving collaboration models, defining integration strategies, and ensuring scalable success.”

Nat Friedman: A Newcomer to Meta – Quick Start, but Vibes Stumbles

This restructuring is also closely tied to Friedman’s recent management performance.

To solidify its position in the generative AI space, Meta has been aggressively recruiting AI talent since 2025. Particularly after the underwhelming launch of its Llama 4 large language model in April, Zuckerberg—dissatisfied with the pace of AI progress—personally oversaw the reorganization of Meta’s AI team in June. In a rare move, he brought in external executives to establish the Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL).

It was during this restructuring that Zuckerberg hired Alexander Wang, founder of Scale AI, to lead Meta Superintelligence Labs—including its elite “TBD Lab,” which focuses on cutting-edge AI model research and development.

Friedman joined Meta during this period to lead the AI product team under Alexander Wang. Prior to this role, Friedman was a well-known Silicon Valley investor and former head of GitHub.

According to insiders, Friedman rushed to launch Vibes in September—an app generating short videos entirely with AI—to beat OpenAI’s new video app to market.

To speed up Vibes’ launch, Meta signed a multi-year, billion-dollar technical collaboration agreement with startup Midjourney. Notably, Friedman had served as a long-term advisor to Midjourney.

Friedman also pushed his team to integrate Midjourney’s technology into Meta AI to support Vibes, abandoning the original plan to use Meta’s in-house developed video models. Additionally, Meta incorporated technology from Black Forest Labs, a German startup, to further accelerate the app’s release.

While Vibes—led by Friedman—initially boosted Meta AI’s user growth, its momentum was quickly overshadowed by the launch of OpenAI’s AI video app.

Although a Meta spokesperson noted that Friedman’s “fast start has been impressive” and that he “attracted some of the company’s top talent to the team,” the lackluster performance of Vibes and growing internal dissatisfaction with Friedman’s management style likely played a key role in Zuckerberg’s decision to assign Shah to support Friedman in managing AI products.

A Metaverse Veteran Steps In: Product Expertise + Extensive Connections

For key roles, Zuckerberg has long favored promoting internal veterans, as they understand the company’s systems and can execute his strategies more quickly.

Another crucial factor behind Shah’s appointment is his strong background in product management. He previously led Instagram’s product strategy and, after 2021, oversaw Meta’s Metaverse division—leading the development of Horizon Worlds.

Moreover, with years of experience at Meta, Shah’s addition is expected to facilitate effective communication and alignment between Friedman (an external hire), Zuckerberg, and various departments—helping Meta better implement its AI product strategy.

Friedman also values Shah’s technical background and influence within Meta. He praised Shah for being “skilled at solving complex technical problems” and emphasized that Shah “has deep connections across the company.”

In 2021, when Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s pivot to the metaverse and rebranded the company as Meta, Shah was appointed head of Meta’s Metaverse division, becoming the leader of the company’s new strategic business. However, due to technical bottlenecks, low consumer interest, and the rapid rise of AI, the metaverse eventually took a backseat to Meta’s emerging AI strategy.

Shah’s transfer to the AI division reaffirms Zuckerberg’s trust in this long-serving executive. In his new role, Shah will oversee product management and the integration of Meta’s AI technology into Reality Labs—the division responsible for metaverse development and new products like smart glasses. Zuckerberg has previously identified Reality Labs as a key pillar for realizing his “superintelligence” strategy.

Shah stated that AI and the metaverse are closely interconnected, adding that he will continue to build bridges between MSL and Reality Labs to enable Meta to deliver personalized superintelligence services across devices to billions of users.

Alongside Shah’s reassignment, Meta also promoted two executives from its Metaverse division: Gabriel Aul and Ryan Cairns will now lead Meta’s metaverse business, focusing on virtual reality (VR) and mobile devices.

Gabriel Aul will take over as Head of the Metaverse Product Group; he previously oversaw product work for Meta Horizon, a social metaverse application. Ryan Cairns will continue to lead Quest hardware and the Meta Horizon OS operating system, reporting directly to Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Bosworth emphasized that the metaverse remains a key focus for Meta and that its priority has not changed.

Turmoil Behind the Frenzy

Led by Zuckerberg, Meta has ramped up its efforts in AI at a breakneck pace this year. Earlier in the year, Zuckerberg announced plans to invest heavily in building “the most advanced AI technology,” adding that he would rather overspend than underinvest in AI. Zuckerberg believes that the real risk for Meta lies not in being too aggressive, but in being not aggressive enough.

However, one consequence of this rapid expansion is ongoing turbulence from repeated reorganizations within Meta’s AI team. Since the establishment of the Superintelligence Lab in late June, Meta has restructured its AI division four times in just a few months—a period marked by intense internal friction.

In a recent internal upheaval at Meta AI, Yann LeCun, Meta’s Chief AI Scientist, even considered resigning due to dissatisfaction with a Meta policy regarding its FAIR (Facebook AI Research) lab, triggering a temporary uproar within the AI team.

Last week, Meta’s AI division cut approximately 600 jobs—including that of Yuandong Tian, a FAIR Research Science Director who had served Meta for over a decade. Alexander Wang described the layoffs as an effort to “speed up decision-making and execution.”

The recent turbulence in Meta’s AI team is a growing pain as the company rushes to assemble a competitive team capable of catching up to leaders like OpenAI and Google. Simply throwing money at talent recruitment is insufficient to build a competitive team; more importantly, the effective integration of new and existing talent is key to unlocking the organization’s full potential.

The pairing of Friedman and Shah represents a critical attempt by Zuckerberg to drive the integration of new (external hires) and existing (internal veterans) talent. This combination may help Meta AI pursue rapid growth while maintaining greater stability.

For Zuckerberg, ensuring that talent truly integrates into Meta is even more important than lavishing funds on recruitment. This latest personnel shakeup could mark a turning point for Meta—shifting from a phase of “headlong AI expansion” to one of “organizational integration.