ByteDance Was Late to AI Party, CEO Says in All-Hands Meeting

(Bloomberg) — ByteDance Ltd.’s chief urged his staff to resist mediocrity after the company missed the initial wave of generative artificial intelligence (AI) development, becoming the latest Chinese corporate leader to warn employees against falling behind in a fast-changing environment.

In a company-wide meeting on Tuesday, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Liang Rubo told workers to adopt a sense of crisis — suggesting social video pioneer ByteDance was late to recognize the advent of game-changing technologies such as generative AI. He joins Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.’s Jack Ma and JD.com Inc.’s Richard Liu in voicing concern about organizational problems in the face of rising competition.