To upskill a product team in AI, avoid creating a separate, intimidating new skill category. Instead, frame AI as a tool to augment existing competencies like execution (writing user stories), customer insight (synthesizing research), and strategy (brainstorming).
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Don't evaluate your team's AI readiness as a standalone capability. True AI strategy requires a deep understanding of customer problems and unique value. Without strong core product competencies, AI adoption is merely tactical, not strategic.
By creating a central repository infused with company strategy and market data, AI tools can help junior PMs produce assets with the same contextual depth as a 20-year veteran, democratizing product intuition and standardizing quality across the team.
AI automates tactical tasks, shifting the PM's role from process management to de-risking delivery by developing deep customer insights. This allows PMs to spend more time confirming their instincts about customer needs, which engineering teams now demand.
Companies once hired siloed 'digital experts,' a role that became obsolete as digital skills became universal. To avoid repeating this with AI, integrate technologists into current teams and upskill existing members rather than creating an isolated AI function that will fail to scale.
To ensure AI adoption is a core competency, formally integrate it into your team's operating system. Webflow is redoing its career ladder to make AI fluency a requirement for advancement, expecting team members not just to use tools but to lead, own, and push the boundaries of AI in their work.
To assess a product manager's AI skills, integrate AI into your standard hiring process rather than just asking theoretical questions. Expect candidates to use AI tools in take-home case studies and analytical interviews to test for practical application and raise the quality bar.
AI won't replace product managers but will elevate their role. PMs will shift from executing tasks like financial forecasting to managing a team of specialized AI agents, forcing them to focus on high-level strategy and assumption-checking.
AI's value for PMs is augmentation, not replacement. By automating tactical tasks that consume most of a PM's day (e.g., "six out of eight hours"), AI frees up critical capacity for higher-level strategic, creative, and innovative work—the core functions of a product leader.
The rise of AI tools isn't replacing the PM role, but transforming it. PMs who embrace an "AI-enhanced" workflow for research, docs, and prototyping will gain a massive productivity advantage, ultimately displacing those who stick to traditional methods.
To transform a product organization, first provide universal access to AI tools. Second, support teams with training and 'builder days' led by internal champions. Finally, embed AI proficiency into career ladders to create lasting incentives and institutionalize the change.
