Summary
Most companies are still treating AI like a research side project, disconnected from real product delivery. At HeyGen, it’s the opposite: AI is the operating system of the company and the driving force of the roadmap. By embedding AI directly into the core of product development, HeyGen has launched major products in days and a next-generation video model in less than a week. In this session, HeyGen CTO Rong Yan will reveal his playbook for building and leading an AI-native engineering organization – from accelerating product cycles to fostering an innovation-first culture. Learn more about how integrating AI into HeyGen’s product operating system has enabled unprecedented speed and impact, why the traditional “AI lab” model is holding companies back, and what else it takes to lead in this era.
Speakers
Rong Yan is CTO at HeyGen, the all-in-one video creation suite designed for businesses and creative professionals. He brings the company’s mission of making visual storytelling globally accessible to life, enabling nearly 100k customers to create videos 10x faster, localize them into 170+ languages, and personalize them at scale.
Rong has nearly 20 years of engineering leadership experience from leading companies including IBM, Facebook, and Square. Prior to joining HeyGen, he was VP of Engineering at HubSpot leading Data Intelligence and Automation, as well as Senior Director of Engineering at Snap, where he led the team of 250+ engineers in developing and maintaining Snapchat features like Camera, Messaging, Stories, Discover, Memories, and Identity.
on ELC Annual 2025