Instagram founder Mike Krieger to co-lead Anthropic's AI incubator Labs amid leadership reshuffle

Anthropic has announced a senior leadership reshuffle as it expands its internal incubator, Labs, reflecting how rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping product development priorities.

The changes were outlined in a company announcement dated January 14. As part of the move, Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram and Anthropic’s Chief Product Officer (CPO) for the past two years, will step away from his C-suite role to co-lead Labs alongside Ben Mann, the company’s product engineering lead, Anthropic said.

Krieger will report directly to Anthropic President Daniela Amodei and take on the title of member of technical staff, as per a report by The Verge.

The AI safety and research firm said Labs will play a central role in incubating experimental products built at the frontier of its Claude models’ capabilities. The unit will focus on early-stage exploration, testing unpolished tools with select users, and scaling successful ideas into reliable products, according to the company statement.

“The speed of advancement in AI demands a different approach to how we build, how we organise, and where we focus. Labs gives us room to break the mold and explore,” Amodei said in a statement.

Product leadership transition

Ami Vora, who joined Anthropic in late 2025, will assume responsibility for the Product organisation. She will work closely with Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Rahul Patil to scale Claude-related products across enterprise and consumer use cases, the company said.

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Anthropic noted that this dual-track structure is designed to balance experimentation with reliability. The approach has previously led to products such as Claude Code and the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which the company said has reached around 100 million monthly downloads.

Krieger said the decision reflects a pivotal moment for the industry.

“We’ve reached a watershed moment in AI—model capabilities are advancing so fast that the window to shape how they’re used is now. That’s why I’m getting back into builder mode, moving from my role as CPO and joining our Labs team," Krieger said, as per The Verge.

"I want to be hands-on at the frontier, building products that channel AI toward solving the world’s hardest problems. I’m excited to pass the baton to Ami as she leads the team in scaling Claude,” he added.