AI insights
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How is AI impacting the role of product managers?
AI is transforming the role of product managers by automating the process of translating ideas into products, potentially reducing the need for traditional product management roles. Tools like Stratup.ai and Ideanote are already changing how these roles function.
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What do clients expect from agencies in the age of AI?
Clients are looking for agencies to provide strategic orchestration rather than just task execution. They expect agencies to blend AI efficiency with human-centered insights and ethics, offering clarity and critical thinking.
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How is Google’s GameNGen affecting UX design?
Google’s GameNGen is disrupting UX design by enabling adaptive interfaces and democratizing design tools, which allows for real-time transformation and hyper-personalized user experiences. This shift is changing job dynamics in the design industry.
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What skills are essential for future-proofing a UX career in the age of AI?
Critical, systems, and narrative thinking, along with empathy and ethics, are essential skills for future-proofing a UX career. These human-centric skills are becoming strategic design tools that AI cannot replace.
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Will AI replace agencies entirely?
AI is not replacing agencies but reshaping their value by shifting their focus from execution to strategic capability building. Agencies need to adapt by integrating AI with human insights to meet client demands.
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What is the impact of AI on job roles for designers?
AI is transforming job roles for designers by accelerating the design process and making high-end UX accessible to smaller teams. This democratization of design tools is leveling the playing field for indie designers.
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Is the UX field at risk of being overtaken by AI?
While AI is rapidly rising, the UX field is not at risk of being overtaken because the most valuable design skills remain deeply human. Designers need to focus on sharpening skills that AI cannot replace, such as empathy and ethical considerations.
In the evolving landscape of tech, product managers and leads are facing a shake-up as AI tools like Startup.ai and Ideanote streamline the journey from idea to product. Execs at OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft foresee these roles becoming less crucial, as AI bridges the gap between vision and execution. Traditionally, PMs translated ideas into actionable plans, but now AI handles this with speed and precision, offering real-time market insights and automating decision-making. The future favors those who stay close to market signals, like sales and support teams, while traditional PM roles risk obsolescence. It’s a reset, not a collapse—AI prioritizes ideas over resumes, leveling the playing field for innovators worldwide.
“Product Managers and Leads with experience will be the most in-demand resource in the coming years. Especially if they know how to leverage AI.”
That’s what execs at OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft are saying. I don’t think they’re wrong, just early.
But here’s my take, a little too blunt:
Give it 3–5 years, and most of these roles won’t exist.
When people say “Product” or “Lead,” they usually mean someone who translates half-baked ideas into something buildable. A bridge between “Here’s my vision” and “Here’s what we shipped.”
That bridge? AI’s already halfway across it.
Idea to Product, No Middle Required
Tools like Stratup.ai, Ideanote, and Startup Idea Validator are rewriting the job. They replace weeks of work done by Product Owners and Leads: exploring solutions, spotting viable niches, validating assumptions, surfacing real-time market signals.
They generate structured reports, reveal untapped market segments, and deliver SWOT analysis and trend insights, without days of research.
For PMs, this means getting instant data, ready to act. That’s not just efficiency, it’s survival.
What Is a PM Now?
Let’s be blunt: product managers have become translators.
And when the language gets automated, translators go first.
PMs used to orchestrate. Now, too often, they create friction.
And friction is what gets automated next.
Who Hears the Market?
Survival hinges on proximity to truth.
Products are just conversion layers, market signals in, software out. But PMs don’t usually hear the real signal. Sales and support do. They live in the feedback loop. They don’t need reports. They are the report.
PMs who last are the ones standing in that chaos, not reading about it later.
OODA Loop, AI Edition
John Boyd’s OODA loop: “Observe, Orient, Decide, Act”, was built for speed and adaptation. Now, AI compresses that loop into hours.
It observes trends, orients through live data, decides via trained models, and acts through automation. No standups. No tickets. Just movement.
If your job slows this loop down, you’re not supporting the team. You’re stalling it.
Quiet Layoffs Aren’t So Quiet
Think this is hype?
Look around. PM roles are shrinking. Headcount is delayed. Titles are changing. First, the bonus pool gets smaller. Then the reorgs start. Then the silence.
Middle layers always go first. It’s happening again.
Why This Is Good
This isn’t a collapse. It’s a reset.
Now, anyone can ship.
The kid in Dakar.
The artist in Tbilisi.
The mom in Warsaw.
You don’t need funding or a team. You need clarity.
AI doesn’t care about resumes.
It cares about ideas.
The gatekeepers are nervous.
The gates are gone.
“Observe, orient, decide, act. Repeat. Or get left behind.” – paraphrased John Boyd
TL;DR:
- AI tools now generate, validate, and ship product ideas with precision.
- PMs focused on coordination and translation are increasingly redundant.
- The future belongs to those closest to real market signals and who can move fast.
Adapt. Accelerate. Or get out of the way.
