Product Management in the era of AI: More Output, Less Soul

AI makes Product Managers more productive, but it’s our human edge—creativity, product sense, and intuition—that keeps us from becoming obsolete.

Let’s cut to the chase. If you’re not knee-deep in the AI debate, wondering if it’s going to eat your job or turn you into some kind of superhero, you’re probably not paying attention. We’re in the thick of it, folks. AI isn’t just some shiny new gadget; it’s rewriting the rules of the game. And in this game, there are winners and losers. Guess which one you want to be.

Everyone is a Product Manager (That’s a Good and Bad Thing)

Here’s the deal: the ivory tower of product management is crumbling. Everyone thinks they’re a Product Manager now. Engineers are making calls on the fly, guided by vibes instead of dusty requirements and Jira tickets. Designers aren’t just sketching pretty screens and building design systems; they plot entire strategies. Even the marketer who previously only haunted you in #General to share their LinkedIn post is tossing out feature ideas like they’ve been shipping products since the dawn of time. It’s chaos out there.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. The best products have always emerged from a shared sensibility about what constitutes quality—a collective taste. AI has smashed the gates wide open, handing everyone the tools and speeding up the feedback loops to the point where taste and critical thought have become the primary differentiators.

This free-for-all is a double-edged blade. On one side, it’s a rush—everyone’s got a shot at brilliance. On the other, it’s a screaming mess, like a room full of lunatics with no one at the helm. As Product Managers, we’re not extinct; we’re just shifting gears. The flood of ideas is faster and rawer than ever. You can try to push back, but good luck with that. Better to lean in—give your team the tools to sharpen their thoughts, then step up as the one who sifts through the noise. The art isn’t in owning the vision anymore. Now, your job is to curate the vibes.

The vibe.

Smaller Teams, Bigger Headaches

AI is trimming teams down to the bone, and yeah, the efficiency is a siren song. We’re cranking out plans, mockups, and data breakdowns at warp speed—fewer hands, more results. It’s seductive until you realize it’s a grind with no end. Smaller crews mean the pressure’s all on us. Burnout’s waiting in the shadows, and when the AI churns out a dud, who’s left to take the hit? Not the model. Us. The humans. Because when the users scream, “What the hell is this?” no one’s pointing fingers at the LLM. We’ve got to juggle the promise of speed with the reality of keeping a team, and ourselves, from cracking.

The Productivity Trap: Faster, But Hollow

Here’s a kicker for you: an MIT study finds highly skilled workers using AI are more productive but less happy. They feel like they’re working for the AI, not the other way around. In Product Management, that’s a five-alarm fire. This job thrives on intuition, creativity, and that hair standing up on the back of your neck the moment when you know you’ve nailed the user’s pain point and can make the company a boatload of cash. If AI starts calling the shots, we’re reduced to button pushers in a machine-driven dystopia.

I've felt that creeping sensation that I'm becoming a mere prompt engineer, a servant to the machine rather than its master. The work gets done faster, but sometimes it feels hollow, as if the soul has been extracted from the process. The tools promise liberation but can sometimes deliver a subtle form of subjugation.

I’m not here to romanticize the old days; spreadsheets and sticky notes had their own hell, but there’s a soul to Product Management that AI can’t replicate. It can crunch numbers, spit out trends, and mock up a dozen feature ideas before breakfast, but it can’t feel the market’s pulse or hear the unspoken needs behind a user’s complaint. The risk is real: we get so damn good at output that we forget why we signed up for this ride. We are in danger of becoming our own feature factory.

Superagency: Teaming Up Without Selling Out

But hold up—there’s a lifeline. Call it “superagency.” It’s the sweet spot where AI and humans tag-team to hit heights neither could alone. AI takes the grunt work—digging through data, sniffing out trends, sketching first drafts—while we zero in on the big moves, the stuff that makes this job an art. It’s not about handing over control; it’s about juicing up what we already bring to the table.

The Product Managers who’ll own this new world aren’t the ones outsourcing their brains to AI. They’re the ones who get that it’s a force multiplier, not a replacement. I’ve seen it in action: PMs firing off a dozen wild ideas with AI, then using that human edge to pick the winners. It’s a partnership that can crank out stuff we couldn’t dream of a few years back.

The future of product management isn't about surrendering to AI or fighting against it. It's about finding that perfect symbiosis, where human imagination and artificial capability combine to create something greater than the sum of their parts.

The Bottom Line: Keep the Machines in Check

Here’s where we land: the fate of Product Management isn’t locked in yet. We can let AI turn us into hollow shells, feeding the beast, or we can wield it to sharpen our best instincts. I’m throwing my chips on the second option, and you’d be wise to follow.

This job’s always been a split between cold logic and wild art. AI pumps up the logic, but it can’t touch the art. The sharpest PMs will ride both waves, knowing the tools can speed us up, but only our human grit makes it count. AI hands us the raw material; our passion, our skepticism, our intuition shape it into something users crave and businesses bank on. Embrace the tech, sure, but don’t forget who’s steering this ship. It’s not about the gadgets—it’s about the craft. Let’s not blow it.