Bird CEO says AI rewards adaptable generalists

Bird CEO Robert Vis says AI is increasing the value of employees who take ownership and work across disciplines. The communications infrastructure company reduced its head count from more than 1,000 people to 120 over roughly three years as it automated operations and prioritized autonomous, multidisciplinary workers. Vis said even strong performers were not retained if they lacked that breadth.

In engineering, Bird expects employees to understand both coding and how a product should work. Vis said AI also helps teams produce designs within frameworks established by designers and automate routine support, sales, and accounting tasks. Some specialist positions remain, including revenue accounting and security engineering. Bird said it generated $165 million in EBITDA in 2025 after extensively automating its operations.

Figma CEO Dylan Field and Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar have similarly highlighted the value of broader capabilities or subject expertise combined with technological skills. The shift is not universal: consulting firms are increasingly prioritizing deep industry or technical expertise as AI reduces the value of broad strategy work. Vis cautioned against using AI simply to justify layoffs, saying leaders should identify repetitive tasks that can be eliminated without overburdening remaining employees.