Product Managers at Ramp now write specs with the primary audience being an AI agent. The spec is effectively a prompt, and its output is a working product, not just a document for engineers to interpret. This changes the entire dynamic of product definition from documentation to direct creation.
As AI commoditizes code, the traditional PM role is bifurcating. One path is becoming a hands-on builder who uses AI to create the product directly. The other is a business-focused strategist who concentrates on GTM, positioning, monetization, and competitive strategy, which AI cannot yet replicate.
The traditional career path of climbing the management ladder is becoming obsolete in the AI era. The highest value and impact now come from achieving deep proficiency as a hands-on builder with AI tools. Aspiring leaders should prioritize building skills over traditional management.
Ramp's internal tool, "Inspect," allows non-technical roles like PMs and designers to generate and merge production-ready code. This dramatically accelerates development for quality-of-life improvements and minor features, activating the entire company as builders, not just the engineering team.
Ramp's code generation by AI has rapidly increased from 30% to 50% in three months. This isn't just for prototypes but for the entire production stack, back-end and front-end, signaling a fundamental shift in software development that makes the entire company more productive.
Ramp built an AI agent that sifts through Gong recordings, Salesforce notes, support tickets, and chats to answer any product question. This automates the work of an entire team, turning days of research into an eight-minute query to identify key customer pain points and roadmap priorities.
When reviewing work, an AI-native leader's role shifts. Instead of repeatedly giving the same feedback (e.g., "put the CTA above the fold"), they should fix the underlying AI skill, prompt, or design system that caused the error, thus automating the correction for all future work.
Due to the rapid pace of AI-driven development, Ramp has abandoned annual or multi-year planning. They now operate on a three-month horizon, which is considered a long time because it allows them to accomplish what previously took three years, making long-term roadmaps obsolete.
Ramp requires all new hires, regardless of role, to be proficient with AI tools. The interview process for product managers now includes a practical session where candidates must build and present a functional product prototype using AI, demonstrating hands-on skill rather than just theoretical knowledge.
Ramp's CPO argues companies shouldn't excessively worry about AI token costs. If an AI agent can deliver 10x the output of a human, it's logical and profitable to pay the agent (via tokens) more than the human's salary. This reframes ROI from a cost center to a massive productivity investment.