“Will AI kill Product Management?”

This was a question making some waves a few months ago thanks to a provocatively titled presentation on YouTube.

I'd argue AI will make product management even more essential.

Software development is undoubtedly becoming faster and cheaper. Many rote and routine aspects of that process will become commoditized. But that will only increase demand for more features and more software.

In turn, the need for people who can crisply and clearly define what to build, why we're building it and who will use it it will be more important then ever.

At its core, Product Management revolves around 3 elements:
1️⃣ Empathy for the customer - understanding needs and pain points
2️⃣ Filtering and prioritization - which of those potential features should get done and in what sequence given business realities and constraints (and just as importantly, making a call on which ones we don't work on)
3️⃣ Clearly articulating the core experiential elements of the user experience

Just as clear and well-structured AI prompts lead to better responses from ChatGPT, my experiments with AI assisted coding have been far more successful when I provided a clear vision of the product along with concise user stories and acceptance criteria. While these were small scale projects, more complex enterprise projects will only magnify the value of a crisply defined user experience.

Will AI upend product management? It may redefine roles, titles and responsibilities, but the core "Jobs to be Done"—setting vision, empathizing with users, articulating experiences, and guiding decisions—will remain essential.

👉 The real challenge isn’t whether AI will replace the role Product Managers, but how PM's will leverage AI to deliver more impact.