Who Is Vishal Shah, Appointed To Key AI Role By Mark Zuckerberg?

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg has promoted veteran executive Vishal Shah to a key position within the company's AI division, according to a Financial Times report. It marks the latest move in Zuckerberg’s ongoing leadership reshuffle amid his rapid drive into artificial intelligence (AI).

Meta’s AI product chief, Nat Friedman, said Shah will take charge of product management within his team, reporting directly to him, FT reported, citing an internal memo.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed the development to Reuters but did not provide any details about Shah’s new role.

According to Shah’s LinkedIn profile, he holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Computer Science and Business from the University of California at Berkeley. He graduated in May 2004. 

He worked as an engineer for Redi2 for less than a year, followed by a stint of slightly over a year as an analyst at Accenture.

He served as director of engineering at Turn, a digital marketing company, for seven years from 2005 to 2013. This was followed by a two-year stint as a senior director of product management.

Shah joined Instagram in 2015 as director of product management and served in that role till November 2018. He was then promoted to vice-president (VP) of product, a job he held till August 2021.

Since then, he has been serving as VP of Metaverse.

In the memo reviewed by FT, Friedman praised Shah for solving “ambiguous technical problems” and highlighted his “deep relationships across Meta”.

Shah will play a key role in bringing Meta’s artificial intelligence capabilities into its Reality Labs division, which focuses on augmented and virtual reality, the FT report added.

The unit oversees the company’s metaverse ambitions and growing smart glasses initiative. According to the FT report, the latter is central to Zuckerberg’s vision for pursuing what he calls “superintelligence. "

Shah plans to “remain very involved in building bridges between Meta’s Superintelligence Labs and Reality Labs that will enable us to shape how we deliver personal superintelligence to billions of people across all devices," the FT report added, quoting his internal post.