According to media reports citing sources, ByteDance has implemented an organizational restructuring within its Seed division. The scope of responsibilities for Zhou Chang, the company's head of multimodal AI, has been expanded once again. The Seed Robotics team, previously overseen by Li Hang, has now been reporting to Zhou Chang for over a month. Li Hang currently serves in an advisory role, focusing on academic collaboration initiatives.
The reports also indicate that ByteDance is actively recruiting for a Head of Embodied Intelligence Technology. This position will be responsible for the overall strategic planning of the robotics business, is ranked at L8 internally—comparable to Alibaba's P10-P11 levels—and will report directly to Zhou Chang. The primary candidates for this role are reportedly technical leaders from leading embodied intelligence startups.
Sources note that robotics-related work is distributed across multiple teams handling tasks such as hardware, data, and models. However, there has been some degree of functional overlap during execution, particularly in the area of model development. Following this restructuring, robotics-related R&D resources are being further consolidated under centralized management, which is expected to enhance coordination and synergy.
The reports mention that the Seed Robotics team was formerly part of ByteDance's AI Lab robotics unit. Last year, after the AI Lab was merged into the Seed division, the robotics team was transferred into the Seed structure. At that time, Li Hang, the original head of the AI Lab, reported directly to Wu Yonghui, the head of Seed, although Li Hang's involvement in day-to-day management was reportedly limited. Under the new structure, Li Hang now reports to Jin Xiaowei, who is in charge of academic cooperation.
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