Reimagining Product Management in the Age of AI

There are countless articles and perspectives on where product management is headed in the AI era. While the enthusiasm is justified, many conversations miss a few critical points.

First, while it’s widely accepted that every product manager (PM) will need to understand AI and integrate it into their products, there is little clarity on what depth of knowledge is required. Will PMs have dedicated science or engineering teams to build AI capabilities? Will they rely on internal platform teams? Or will they be expected to research and purchase external solutions—or perhaps use a mix of both? Few address these questions in detail, creating significant uncertainty about how the role will evolve.

Second, many predictions focus on which tasks might be automated or what skills could be in higher demand. However, these discussions are often so high-level that they fail to provide practical clarity.

Finally, there is a common narrative that product management is either "dying" or "rising to new heights," with few offering a nuanced view of what is actually happening.

Product Management Isn’t Dying—It’s Evolving

Traditionally, product managers have been seen as the champions of their products—responsible not just for day-to-day performance, but for driving a broader vision. Their core mission was to serve as evangelists for the product, unite cross-functional teams, and guide long-term strategies that delivered extraordinary customer experiences. Execution was part of the role, but it was often a secondary focus compared to shaping the "why" and "what" behind the product’s journey.

However, the growing pressure to deliver faster, coupled with the need to iterate quickly in highly competitive markets, gradually shifted the nature of the PM role. Many product managers found themselves transitioning into what is often referred to as a Product Owner role. In this version of the job, the focus is heavily tactical: managing backlogs, clearing day-to-day team blockers, coordinating sprints, and ensuring feature delivery. Strategy, market research, and customer insight gathering—once central to the PM role—became secondary tasks, often delegated to more senior PMs, Group PMs, or Heads of Product overseeing multiple teams.

Adding to the confusion, not all organizations draw a clear distinction between Product Manager and Product Owner roles. In many companies, the titles are used interchangeably, leading to the evolution of a third hybrid model—one that most PMs today find themselves in. In this model, PMs are expected to combine the responsibilities of both roles: driving tactical execution while simultaneously being held accountable for strategic outcomes. This hybridization often happens without the necessary time, resources, or organizational structures needed to succeed at both.

This is where major issues arise.

Many PMs today report being overwhelmed: buried under endless meetings, tactical fire-fighting, and operational work. Strategic thinking, proactive market research, customer discovery, and long-term planning get deprioritized—not because PMs lack capability, but because they lack bandwidth. Strategy is often squeezed into brief windows between operational demands, usually triggered reactively when leadership demands a new plan or vision. Unsurprisingly, the quality of these strategic outputs often suffers, not due to a lack of talent, but due to impossible time constraints.

As a result, organizational leaders increasingly perceive that PMs are not delivering sufficient strategic value. Trust begins to erode. Senior roles or external hires are brought in to "own the strategy," further sidelining existing PMs. Career growth stalls, and capable PMs find themselves stuck in tactical loops, unable to showcase the strategic potential that they actually possess.

This breakdown of trust and impact at the strategic level has led to the growing questioning of the PM function itself. More leaders are asking: What should a modern product manager actually be responsible for? Where does the most value come from? And crucially: How should PMs adapt in the era of AI and automation?

The Automation of Core PM Tasks

According to Freedom Preetham, approximately 80% of product management tasks—including ticket organization, prioritization, and PRD writing—will be automated. The remaining 20%, however, will become even more critical and will increasingly be absorbed by roles such as UX designers, business managers, and engineering managers.

While this forecast is compelling, it assumes that these adjacent roles naturally possess strategic product thinking, which is often not the case. PMs, by contrast, are uniquely positioned to adapt due to their broad focus on product performance and their ability to connect cross-functional expertise.

As AI accelerates tasks like prototyping and coding, PMs will absorb more responsibilities from UX, Analytics, and Engineering. This will enable specialists to concentrate on complex, non-linear challenges where human ingenuity is essential.

Absorbing these tasks will allow PMs to:

• Accelerate time-to-market.
• Focus teams on their core strengths.
• Maintain a clear product vision while simplifying execution.

The Rise of Creativity and Strategic Focus

As AI takes over manual tasks, the value of creativity, customer empathy, and strategic foresight will rise sharply. These are areas where AI cannot easily compete.

Understanding customer needs deeply, predicting future demands, and creating unique product experiences will be critical differentiators. Quick brainstorming sessions and shallow insights will not suffice; instead, success will depend on deep thinking, reflective processes, and visionary leadership.

This trend will push PMs away from daily execution and toward higher-level strategic work.

New Role Definitions for PMs

These two vastly different trends — one requiring the absorption of certain tasks by other teams, the other demanding a move toward more strategic thinking — create a tension that the traditional "middle layer" approach fails to resolve. Forcing one person to bridge both sides prevents PMs from reaching their full potential and limits the organization's return on investment in the role.

In thinking about solutions, I found valuable inspiration in Claire Vo’s vision for the future of product management, particularly in how she defines distinct roles. Building on that foundation, and informed by the research outlined above, I propose a model that integrates her insight with our findings to address these challenges more effectively.

The Experience Manager

The Experience Manager role will become a cornerstone of future product teams. In many ways, it builds on the responsibilities traditionally assigned to Product Owners, but with important, expanded dimensions influenced by the rise of AI and automation.

Experience Managers will embed deeply within product teams, working hand-in-hand with Engineering, UX, and Analytics. Their primary focus will be tactical execution—ensuring that product features are delivered quickly, effectively, and with a deep understanding of the user journey. Unlike traditional Product Owners, however, they will also take on significant responsibilities previously owned by Engineering and UX, thanks to new AI-driven capabilities.

This evolution will allow Experience Managers to execute independently at a feature level—similar to how a startup founder might make fast, autonomous decisions within a small team.

Their core responsibilities will include:

• Feature-level deliverability: Depending on the complexity, they may either own the full delivery themselves or coordinate closely with other functions to ensure successful execution.
• Fast decision-making: Their embedded, hands-on role will allow them to make tactical product decisions in real time, removing bottlenecks and keeping teams agile.
• Engagement metric ownership: Experience Managers will track and report on feature adoption, user engagement, and behavioral metrics, ensuring that their work directly translates into measurable outcomes.
  

In summary, the Experience Manager’s strength will lie in their ability to move quickly, execute independently, and continuously optimize based on real-time feedback. They will bring together a hybrid skill set, blending product, UX, analytics, and technical understanding, powered by AI tools that lower traditional barriers to action.

The Commercial PM

The second future-defining role is the Commercial PM. Where the Experience Manager focuses on delivery and execution, the Commercial PM will take ownership of the product’s strategic and business success. This role assumes that the product already functions well at the feature level; the Commercial PM’s focus will be on ensuring that it thrives in the market and drives tangible business outcomes. Individuals with strong backgrounds in sales, consulting, or business strategy will likely thrive most in this role, as it demands a deep understanding of markets, customers, and financial outcomes.

Commercial PMs will no longer be expected to manage daily standups, backlog refinements, or sprint planning. Instead, they will dedicate their time to high-level, business-critical activities such as:

• Defining the overall product strategy and vision, aligning it with business goals and evolving market opportunities driven by AI and emerging technologies.

• Conducting deep market and competitor analysis, identifying white spaces, unmet customer needs, and potential threats before they materialize.

• Building strong customer and stakeholder relationships, acting as a direct point of contact for key customers and internal partners such as sales, marketing, and support.

• Leading go-to-market strategies, crafting launch plans, exploring new channel opportunities, and ensuring that product releases are not only technically successful but also commercially impactful.

• Crafting compelling storytelling, shaping narratives around the product’s vision, value, and impact to inspire teams, win customers, and influence internal and external stakeholders.

• Reporting on revenue and ROI, holding direct accountability for ensuring that the product meets or exceeds financial expectations.

The Commercial PM will operate largely as an individual contributor, but one with significant influence. This role will resemble that of a "mini-CEO" for their product, particularly focused on outward-facing activities. Strong backgrounds in sales, consulting, or marketing will be advantageous, as Commercial PMs must have the ability to sell the product internally and externally, creating emotional and strategic buy-in.

Because Commercial PMs are not bogged down by operational execution, they will be expected to think boldly, bring forward innovative ideas, and proactively shape future market opportunities—before competitors even recognize them.

A New Model for Collaboration

While highly independent in their day-to-day work, Experience Managers and Commercial PMs must be deeply aligned when it comes to the product vision and roadmap.

In this new structure:

• The Commercial PM outlines the strategic "where" and "why"—defining the market needs, emerging opportunities, customer expectations, and competitive landscape.
• The Experience Manager focuses on the "how"—breaking down strategic bets into executable steps, ensuring operational excellence, and driving feature-level delivery.

Together, they will co-create roadmaps that balance visionary ambition with realistic execution. Importantly, they will also partner closely with Engineering and UX to identify continuous improvements (such as infrastructure upgrades, design standards, and technical migrations) that, while not immediately driving revenue, are critical for maintaining product excellence and user satisfaction.

Frequent synchronization between Commercial PMs, Experience Managers, Engineering, and UX will ensure that no major technological trends or market shifts are missed. The Commercial PM will take the lead in prioritizing these inputs, ensuring the final roadmap balances delighting users, driving financial outcomes, and maintaining the product’s competitive edge.

In essence, the future of product management is about specialization, not dilution. PMs must be allowed to fully embody either execution leadership or strategic innovation—not be trapped in an unrealistic hybrid trying to do both.

Conclusion

Product management is undergoing a profound disruption. AI is no longer optional—it’s becoming a fundamental part of the PM skillset. As repetitive tasks lose value, creativity, strategic insight, and cross-functional leadership will define the PMs who thrive.

Navigating this evolving landscape is not easy. But the opportunity to redefine the future of product management has never been greater.

A bold prediction is that product management will increasingly become less about formal experience or rigid processes, and more about a person’s ability to self-learn, adapt quickly, and continuously build new skills. The PMs who thrive will be those who embrace change, stay curious, and proactively evolve alongside new technologies and market realities.

Product leaders and PMs alike must proactively shape their roles, champion new models, and educate organizations on how product management should evolve. The cost of inaction is clear: underpowered PM roles that fail to deliver real business impact.

The future is ours to define.