A key part of product management is viewing existing situations in a creative, non-default way, and consequently arriving at non-standard solutions to problems. AI can help with the work that comes with that, but not with the creative part. Likewise, ultimate ownership of products and the decisions surrounding them must remain with people.
That, in a nutshell, is my view on AI from the perspective of my profession. Below, I expand on it in ten propositions.
1. AI is a tool, not a replacement
Let me start with the basics. AI works for you, not the other way around. It is powerful equipment, strong at repetition, pattern recognition and processing large volumes of information. But it remains equipment. You are and will always be the source of distinctive creativity. The moment you start treating AI as a substitute for your own thinking, you lose precisely what makes you valuable as a product manager.
2. Creativity resides in people
Sparkling language, imagery that resonates, an unexpected angle: these are human qualities. AI lacks feeling, context and intuition. It can recognise and combine patterns, but the difference is made by you, not the model. That may sound like stating the obvious, but in day-to-day practice it is easy to lose sight of it.
3. AI is not built to create anything truly original
AI predicts on the basis of millions of examples. The result is a clever average, quite impressive in terms of speed and consistency, but rarely genuinely surprising. True originality arises from pushing boundaries, breaking rules and drawing connections nobody expects. That is not a matter of computing power.
4. AI has limitations by default
Anyone who works with AI will sooner or later run into its limitations. Reasoning errors in unexpected places. Confident yet incorrect conclusions. No real common sense or self-reflection as we know it. It is important to acknowledge and accept those limitations, not to write AI off, but to deploy it in the right way.
5. Prompting is a human art
The quality of your output stands or falls with the quality of your input. Valuable results demand sharpness and creativity in how you formulate your question. You need to steer, iterate, refine. It never happens by itself. It is, in fact, work. And that is precisely why AI is not a replacement: there must always be someone at the wheel who knows what is needed.
6. You should not blindly trust AI
This point deserves extra emphasis. Personal or confidential data can be misused. Handing over autonomy to AI is, to put it mildly, terrifying. Healthy scepticism is not pessimism; it is professionalism. Do not jump on the hype train without thinking through the consequences.
7. AI is changing Product Management
Now for the flip side: AI is indeed changing the profession, and in positive ways. You can create prototypes and mockups more quickly. Coding agents and other smart tooling can be deployed, enabling you to achieve more with a smaller team. The threshold for going from idea to working concept becomes considerably lower.
8. AI is changing the Product Manager
At an individual level too, AI makes a difference. Drafting user stories and acceptance criteria becomes a good deal faster. Having meeting notes and action lists generated automatically is simply brilliant. And summaries of endless email threads save time and help with inbox management. These are precisely the tasks AI excels at: structuring, summarising, speeding up repetitive work.
9. AI has its limitations for the PM
But there are clear boundaries. Creating and maintaining a product vision remains human work. AI output is often long-winded and superficial, and does not quite hit the mark. Strategy requires vision, choices and courage, and AI does not possess those by default. It can support you in the elaboration, but you set the direction yourself.
10. Conclusion: Product Manager + AI = higher productivity
AI accelerates and supports. The human brings creativity and quality. Stronger together, but you must remain at the helm. Not because AI cannot do it, but because the value of a good product manager lies precisely in what AI cannot do: vision, courage and the ability to think beyond the beaten path.