Xiaohongshu Takes Action: Why Companies Need to Establish an Intelligence Department

Since its founding in 2013, Xiaohongshu has grown over thirteen years to over 4,000 employees and more than 400 million monthly active app users.

Now, it’s made a move: establishing a “Corporate Intelligence Department.”

Integrating the former Enterprise Efficiency Department and Data Science Department, coordinating with the Strategy Department and HR Department, laying the foundation for AI-era organizations across four dimensions: intelligence, talent, data, and resources.

When I saw this news, my first reaction was: finally, a major company has taken action.

We’ve been using Agents to drive our company operations since 2024. After waiting two years, we finally see a major company establishing a corporate intelligence department.

Is Xiaohongshu just reorganizing for show, or truly restructuring? I don’t know.

But this move itself deserves serious consideration by all companies: what should a corporate intelligence department actually be?

Using AI and Being AI-Native Are Two Different Things

Most companies are still in the “using AI” phase.

Buying tools, implementing systems, giving employees an AI assistant. Essentially, it’s efficiency optimization—adding an assistant to old processes.

The real opportunity lies in: not asking “how do we get employees to use AI,” but asking “how do we use AI to redefine how the company operates.”

This is AI-native.

Starting from the assumption that AI is present, redesigning the entire workflow. Not adding a tool to existing positions, but redefining job responsibilities. Not using middle management to manage Agents, but using Agents to replace middle management.

Using AI and being AI-native are two different things.

The former is a 10% efficiency improvement. The latter is a 10x increase in combat effectiveness.

Just like 20 years ago, every company needed an IT department. Now, every company needs an “intelligence department” to restructure workflows.

But the key isn’t “establishing a department”—it’s “restructuring thinking.”

Three People Can Do the Work of Thirty—This Isn’t Science Fiction

Future companies won’t be bigger and bigger, but leaner and leaner.

This isn’t science fiction. This is happening right now.

Anthropic, an AI company valued at $380 billion. During its fastest 10 months of growth, the entire growth marketing department had only one person.

Austin Lau, non-technical background. One person managing all paid search, paid social, app store optimization, email marketing, and SEO.

Not a team. One person.

The data from Silicon Valley is even more direct:

• 2020: Series A startups averaged 57 employees
• 2024: Dropped to 44 employees
• 2025: Funding per employee rose from $160,000 to $320,000

It’s not that funding decreased. It’s that companies are doing more with fewer people.

Block CEO Jack Dorsey put it more directly: “AI tools enable us to work in entirely new ways, fundamentally changing what it means to build and operate a company.”

Then he laid off half the employees.

In 2025, the global tech industry laid off over 245,000 people. Microsoft cut 15,000, Amazon cut 30,000 corporate positions.

It’s not that these companies are failing. It’s that AI has made many positions unnecessary.

One marketing person, using Claude Code, completes in one week:

• Instagram content
• Email marketing
• Landing pages
• Data dashboards

Two years ago, this required 4 people plus a project manager.

One startup founder, using AI, independently completed:

• 40+ marketing pages
• 12 integrated landing pages
• 11 blog posts

Zero marketing team.

Forbes reported it more directly: “Small teams, powered by AI, are beating giants.”

Why?

Because small teams have no legacy baggage. No complex hierarchies. No middle management to convince.

They’re AI-native from day one.

If Starting a Company Now, Organize It as an Intelligence Department from the Beginning

Xiaohongshu establishing a corporate intelligence department means transforming an organization that’s been operating for 13 years.

That’s hard.

When we started enterprise intelligence transformation in 2024, we faced the same problem.

But what if you’re starting a company now?

That’s much simpler.

Organize the company as an intelligence department from the beginning.

Don’t wait until the company grows to transform it. Be AI-native from day one.

Traditional startup thinking: hire people first, then divide work, then coordinate, finally consider tools.

AI-native startup thinking: design workflows first, then define human-machine boundaries, then hire people who can use AI, finally continuously optimize the system.

What’s the difference?

Traditional thinking is “people + tools”—it’s addition. AI-native thinking is “system design”—it’s multiplication.

When we started using Agents to drive the company in 2024, the biggest challenge wasn’t technology—it was mindset transformation.

Not asking “can this person use AI.” But asking “can this workflow be AI-automated.”

Not adding an AI assistant to existing positions. But redefining positions themselves.

Don’t hire “executors,” hire “system designers.”

Not hiring people who “can use AI tools.” But hiring people who “can use AI to restructure workflows.”

The former’s value is execution. The latter’s value is leverage.

Our biggest gain over these two years hasn’t been “how many AI tools we used,” but building a reviewable system.

Every month we optimize the human-machine boundary. Every quarter we restructure workflows.

Not relying on inspiration, but on muscle memory.

This system lets us do big things with a very small team.

It also lets us know, when we see Xiaohongshu establishing a corporate intelligence department, that we’re on the right path.

The Era of Super-Individual Organizations Is Arriving

AI is reshaping organizational models.

Not just for large companies. Small businesses, startups, even individuals are experiencing the same transformation.

The era of super-individual organizations is arriving.

Not “one person doing everything.” But: one person + AI can do the work of a team.

One AI-native super-individual + deep expertise = moat.

Three paths, one direction:

Large companies: Establish corporate intelligence departments, integrate resources, restructure workflows Small businesses: Be AI-native from day one, hire people who can use AI Individuals: Treat yourself as a super-individual, use AI to restructure personal workflows

Different paths, same direction: using AI to redefine what “organization” means.

Which Companies Will Die Without One

Does every company need a corporate intelligence department in the future?

Wrong question.

The right question is: which companies will die without one?

Answer: those still using human labor for judgments that AI can make.

Looking back 10 years from now, corporate intelligence departments will be as common as IT departments are today.

But those who act now versus those who act 5 years later—the difference isn’t timing, it’s survival.

When you’re still using 30 people to do something, your competitor is already doing it better and faster with 3 people.

When you’re still in meetings discussing “should we use AI,” your competitor has already handed routine judgments to AI and focused human effort on creative decisions.

When you’re still “buying tools,” your competitor has already restructured their entire workflow, forming an organizational moat.

This is the line between life and death.

Companies that will die:

• Still using human labor for judgments AI can make
• Still treating AI as a tool rather than infrastructure

Companies that will win:

• Have restructured their entire workflow with AI
• Have made 3 people doing the work of 30 the norm

AI’s moat isn’t in technology—it’s in the speed of organizational restructuring.

Technology can be bought, tools can be bought, but organizational capability cannot.

A company that has already restructured its workflows with AI versus one still in the “buying tools” phase—the difference isn’t tools, it’s the entire operating system.

This gap can’t be closed in a few months.

Act Now

Xiaohongshu establishing a corporate intelligence department is a wake-up call for all companies.

It’s not “should we do this.” It’s “do it now.”

If you’re in a large company, push to establish a corporate intelligence department. If you’re in a small company, be AI-native from day one. If you’re an individual, become a super-individual.

This is the window of opportunity.

Those who act now versus those who act 5 years later—the difference isn’t timing, it’s survival.

Because organizational capability takes time to accumulate. Because AI-native thinking requires training.

This can’t be done overnight.

We started in 2024, and now two years later, we’ve stepped on many landmines, validated many hypotheses, optimized workflows countless times, to have the reviewable system we have today.

In the AI wave, who’s cheering and who’s eating?

Those cheering are discussing “will AI replace humans.” Those eating are restructuring “how companies operate.”

We started down this path in 2024. Xiaohongshu started down this path in 2026.

Two years earlier means two years more accumulation. Two years earlier means two years deeper moat.

Xiaohongshu has taken action. We took action two years ago.

What about you?

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