Product Managers (PMs) everywhere are turning to AI to speed up tasks, from writing specs and summarizing research to analyzing usage data. These early use cases offer value, but they barely scratch the surface of what's possible.
Why? Because the real transformation is deeper. The shift currently underway is not in what PMs work on, but how they're working on it. Across industries, AI is transforming the core mechanics of the PM craft and challenging long-held (read -- outdated) assumptions about workflows, roles, and tasks. In fact, I've observed some product teams are skipping traditional documentation altogether thanks to partnership with AI, while others are shortening development cycles from months to weeks.
What's emerging is a growing divide between teams that use AI for productivity boosts, and those using AI to rethink their ways of working altogether.
Here are three core truths PMs need to keep in mind to stay ahead in the current AI era.
Today, many PMs embrace AI to help them more efficiently complete tasks like generating documentation and creating stakeholder updates. These wins are certainly helpful, but are they really transformative?
In my opinion, the answer is no. I believe the true power of AI for the PM craft lies in its ability to prompt a more fundamental question -- do we even need this step anymore?
Let's take product requirement documents (PRDs). Instead of writing a long-form spec, some teams feed key bullet points into AI tools that generate prototypes within hours, which can then be tested directly with users. Other teams are replacing dense and detailed research decks with auto-synthesized insights that teammates can contribute to simultaneously, without lost progress or velocity.
When teams use AI to revisit not just the tasks, but the need for those tasks, that's when things really start to change. AI gives us permission to ditch legacy processes, rethink, and rebuild for speed, clarity, and impact.
For PMs, leveraging AI isn't just about accelerating the old playbook -- it's about writing a new one altogether. This starts with questioning which processes still serve your team, and which are ripe for reinvention.
Most AI usage in product teams today is still siloed -- a PM working in ChatGPT here, a designer experimenting with Figma Make there. But product development is a team sport, and the biggest gains come when AI becomes a shared part of a team's toolkit.
The next frontier is collaborative AI. This looks like using it to work together on synthesizing research, developing roadmaps, or even running team-wide brainstorming sessions.
In practice, I've seen teams creating shared prompt libraries or building custom copilots trained on their internal data, while others encourage cross-functional experiments, helping engineers, designers, and marketers all test and refine how AI fits into their workflows. When AI is baked into a team's operating rhythm, its impact is multiplied.
For engineers, adapting has been quick, as many already leverage AI coding assistants as a sort of 'second brain'. For designers, embracing AI has been more fragmented, as some view it as a creativity multiplier, while others see it as a threat to the craft. But it's the PMs that have the golden opportunity, and responsibility, to lead the cultural shift toward collaborative AI. The future belongs to teams sprinting toward AI fluency, together.
By normalizing AI experimentation across the team, PMs can make AI less of a novelty and more of a shared competitive edge.
It's true that AI won't replace PMs, but PMs who embrace AI as part of their ways of working will replace those who don't.
The PM role is evolving, not disappearing. In fact, it's growing. PMs must be facilitators of change and help teammates experiment with AI, integrate it into cross-functional workflows, and design smarter systems of work.
Startups, rooted in speed and flexibility, are already leaning into this shift by automating the busywork and reinvesting that time into creativity and iteration. Enterprises risk falling behind if they treat AI as a nice-to-have instead of a strategic necessity.
In this new landscape, PMs must think beyond individual productivity. The challenge, and opportunity, is to lead the team toward AI fluency.
AI isn't replacing product managers, it's redefining what great product management looks like.
The best PMs won't be the ones who simply use AI to do their current job faster. They'll be the ones who reimagine how the job is done in the first place. Who creates new workflows. Who integrates AI into the team's daily rhythm. Who helps everyone move faster, smarter, and more focused.
The product leaders who thrive will be the ones who experiment early and visibly, learn quickly, and adapt often. They'll treat AI not as a shiny tool, but as a partner in building better products, and as a result, stronger teams.
