Doubao PR Head Denies Mass Layoff Rumors, Citing Internal Restructuring

Liu Xing, PR head of ByteDance's AI chatbot Doubao, refuted online rumors claiming that half of the app's conversation team was laid off, clarifying that the change was merely a routine internal restructuring. Out of a general session team of fewer than 50 people, 11 were reassigned to transaction and workplace product teams, with 3 employees departing. The reorganization highlights how consumer-facing AI products are shifting focus from general conversation toward specialized transactional and productivity tools to address monetization bottlenecks. It illustrates the operational challenges AI platforms face when attempting to turn high daily active user counts into commercial revenue. The internal transfer was driven by Zhao Qi, a veteran ByteDance executive who previously managed talent acquisition and the company's Pangolin ad network before taking charge of the combined Feishu and Doubao product teams. The reassigned staff will continue similar technical tasks, such as optimizing conversational experiences specifically for e-commerce and transaction workflows.