From Allbirds to Smartbird: CEO explains former shoe brand's shift to AI infrastructure company

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It caught a lot of attention when the San Francisco-based company formerly known as the shoe brand “Allbirds” announced that it was changing its name and focus. This time to “Smartbird," all part of its shift to become an AI company.

MORE: SF footwear company Allbirds pivots from shoes to AI; sees stock surge by more than 400%

ABC7 Mornings anchor Nancy Chen spoke with the company's new CEO, Nadia Carlsten, from London about the new direction. Carlsten, who got her PhD at UC Berkeley, says getting more companies and organizations into AI is their mission today.

CHEN: "Smartbird has been making plenty of headlines lately, even outside of the tech sector, with the turn from Allbirds and wool sneakers to AI infrastructure being called one of the most unusual pivots in Silicon Valley history -- an industry, of course, full of pivots. What would you say to that response?"

CARLSTEN: "I would say, first of all, it's great that people are noticing, and it's amazing to be able to lead a company that's going through this transformation. The first thing to remember is that the history of Allbirds and the shoe business -- all that is gone. Now, we are an AI infrastructure company. We're very much committed to that transition. We have a great strategy, and I think it's going to make us very unique in the market. We're starting to build a great team. So we're very excited about the future of the company."

CHEN: "Why the shift instead of starting an AI infrastructure firm from the ground up?"

CARLSTEN: "So in many ways, this is like starting a company from the ground up. But there are also advantages to taking the company that already exists and especially a company that's already in the public markets, which is very attractive for a lot of reasons. We're going to be working with a lot of partners who are going to be doing a lot of recruiting...So having access to that public equity is very interesting and useful."

CHEN: "You're taking on this role with a deep background in AI and quantum computing. What does the market look like for AI computing right now?"

CARLSTEN: "It's amazing. There's never been a bettertime to be in this industry. What's exciting is that there's a lot more computation, that is needed to power applications of AI that we're already familiar with. But there's also a lot more companies, a lot more organizations getting into AI and doing new things. So that means that we have more people excited about AI needingto use this infrastructure. And then we alsohave more of the infrastructure that is needed."

CHEN: "Is there a concern, though, about oversupply, or perhaps even an AI bubble that has been talked about so much?"

CARLSTEN: "I think it's always good to consider why people are building the things that they are building before we start talking about 'is the supply enough?' So compared to the demand, the customers that we are talkingto, theyare very interested in doing more withthe AI. And thesecustomers typically are not well-served with the traditional offerings, specifically with customers that cannot use the cloud. We're working with customers who want to do sovereign AI and who need their computers and their infrastructure to sit in a specific geography.Sofor these customers, there isn't an adequate supply right now. And these are the customers that we want to help get onto this wave of AI."

CHEN: "And Nadia, as we all know well, around here, the Bay Area is the epicenter of the AI boom we're seeing right now. What does Smartbird’s growth mean for jobs and investments in the Bay Area?"

CARLSTEN: "That I think that I think is very good. AI is creating jobs in certain categories. Our infrastructure is certainly one of those categories. An AI infrastructure is a broad umbrella. So we are going to be hiring, for example, people that are doing operations, people that are doing engineering, but also people that are on the networking side and making sure that all the processors are connected in the right way and building up custom systems for customers."

"So I think it's a very exciting time to be in the space, but also very exciting for people who are going into a job transition or just getting out of school. This is a very exciting place to be."

CHEN: Given that Allbirds has been headquartered in San Francisco for more than a decade now, could the shift in direction also mean a shift in location?

CARLSTEN: "Potentially. We are very much still going to be a California company. But we're looking at areas like Palo Alto, San Jose, the Silicon Valley more broadly, at the moment."

CHEN: "You've said people eventually may not even remember the shoes. How else would you mark success with Smartbird?"

CARLSTEN: "I think getting more companies and more organizations into AI is our mission.Soweare seeingall ofthese customers that want to be part of this amazingtechnologythat is AI -- that right now, are having to build up their own infrastructure systems, that are having to deal with multiple vendors and trying to do it themselves. If we can give working systems to these companies and help them accelerate the adoption of AI, that's going tomean great success for us."