Anticipating the Unseen
Anticipating the Unseen
How AI is quietly reshaping the future of product management
It's the future; you've just wrapped up a day as a product manager. Your product is steadily gaining traction, and as you take a moment to reflect, you realize just how much AI has transformed product management.
AI has quietly reshaped product management since 2024 when everyone was experimenting with AI. The key changes affecting product managers are:
Product managers have a host of specially trained AI agents supporting their work
Time spent with people is focused on complex communications and product innovations
Life as a product manager is focused on managing cross-functional AI agents
Over time the AI changes have integrated into the product team and affected how product managers work.
Let's dive into these changes and how product managers can prepare for this future.
The Product Team in the Future
When product managers and product team members have specialized AI agents doing product work under the functional team direction, the product team changes.
In 2024, product teams have functional groups that work together in meetings, IMs, tools, and emails.
As AI agents come into play, the product team roles transform into AI agents:
Engineering and delivery provide specially trained product team agents to support the work
Design agents step in to keep the design on track
Corporate functions such as legal, procurement, and branding send their agents to the product team
Product managers and program managers persist on the product team backed by their specially trained AI agents
The product team of the future looks like this:
Each cross-functional team has special agents to work with the product manager and program manager.
With the speed of the agents, product managers are a major bottleneck to the workflow. Product managers have a lot of help…however, product managers have a lot to juggle!
Product Managers Lead AI Agents in the Future
Product managers in the future are accomplished delegators with a shrewd understanding of complex systems. Good judgment, empathy, and strong communication skills are going to be valuable in dealing with this flat product team of experts!
Some of the ways product managers operate will change in the future. A few examples are below.
In the AI-shaped future, product managers have a wide variety of AI agents to engage with. Product managers also know the right people to call for joint decisions.
What Changes for Product Managers in the AI Future?
Let's imagine a product manager in the future with AI agents supporting the product team. With the help of the AI agents, this product manager adds legacy data to the product dashboard and fixes some bugs in the product. Here is what the product manager of the future does to accomplish these tasks:
Conclusion: Embracing the AI Future in Product Management
As AI agents become integral to product initiatives, every member of the product team will experience upgrades in their AI capabilities. This evolution will transform AI from a supportive tool to a key player within your team, enabling product managers to shift their focus toward strategy, creativity, and the human touch that AI cannot replicate.
Looking ahead, the most effective product managers will be those who actively build their leadership, communication skills, and empathy. These qualities are not just relevant today—they will be your superpowers in an AI-driven future.
The future is coming fast. Prepare now, and you'll lead the charge.
Additional Resources for Product Managers
AI-driven Product Management - How product managers are using AI today
Superpower skills for product managers - empathy, communication skills, resilience, good judgment, prioritizing by value, and patience
AI Agent Technology in the Enterprise - The Cube Research article on AI agent scenarios (inspiration for this article)
Last week’s backstory for paid subscribers was about the roller coaster of emotions handling early adopter customers. Deep Challenges in Lifting Sales Restrictions
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Amy, I love this issue. First because it is a topic that is close to my heart. and Second, I love your analysis. I agree that in the future PMs will be augmented by agents. Great article. Thanks
I’m seeing the same thing - AI isn’t ready for the future scenario with AI agents that are specially trained to work together on the product team.
The Cube Research estimated that we might have agents like this in 2030. Link is at the bottom of the article.
When this future eventually comes, product managers will need to adapt.