Product in an AI-first World

We have all been asked how are you rethinking your Product function and organization given the availability of AI and in an AI-first world ?

I discuss how Companies, teams and IC PMs should approach this question and lay out a few options...

Presented at CPO Summit Boston (Aug 2025)

Transcript

1. Product-Led Summit Product Management in an AI-first World Chandi Kodthiwada VP, Product - Komodo Health 1
2. “ “ Product-Led Summit The reports about the death of the product manager role have been greatly exaggerated. - If Mark Twain was a Product Manager 2
3. Product-Led Summit 3 Marketing meets reality…
4. Product-Led Summit The PM Evolution: From Tactical to Strategic Mastering the Backlog Driving the Releases (Current & Next) Outcomes Over Outputs 4
5. Outcomes driven Excellence
6. The AI-Driven PM: Focus on Impact & Outcome, highly automated Execution
7. AI-assisted Product Manager Strategy Articulating visions and translating complex ideas into clear, actionable plans, both tactical and strategic. This involves mastery of written and verbal communication to influence and align diverse stakeholders. Data-Driven Insights Proficiently analyzing quantitative and qualitative data from sources like JIRA, support tickets, and market research to identify trends, pain points, and opportunities. This informs decision-making and product evolution. Judgment & Prioritization The ability to think critically, foresee future trends, plan roadmaps, and make astute judgments on product refinement, business viability, and market opportunities, all while mitigating risks with calculated decisions. Cross-Functional Leadership Mastering stakeholder management by building strong relationships, fostering alignment across engineering, design, marketing, and sales, and influencing without direct authority to drive product success. Most organizations care to Shipping fast, consistently & useful things and also want the retain their revenue, grow & diversify it.
8. Product-Led Summit How do you enable your teams in these evolving times ? 8 8
9. Product-Led Summit 9 Research & Design Product Marketing Product Management Engineering • O->1: Speed of Delivery > Strategy - Supercharge Engineering • Supercharge Product Marketing: If you are entering a new market with an existing product • Supercharge Research & Design: If you are building new product in a new market • Based on size & life cycle of the company/product, you can “overload” PM function with contextual responsibilities for a defined time period. As companies/products scale, use AI as a supercharge to one of the core functions needed for growth/expansion/exploration needs of your product.
10. Outcomes driven Excellence Double-down on things you can’t afford to get wrong & use AI to reduce burden on roles operationally & intentionally.
11. Product Manager as a General Manager The evolving product management role increasingly demands a holistic, business-owner mindset, encompassing strategic foresight and operational acumen. Market & User Research Conducting deep market analysis, user research to identify the right things solve in the right way. De-risk Product Strategy assumptions effectively and early on. Effective Product Strategy Developing robust product strategies that align with overarching business goals with clear path to impact of efforts across time horizons. Bottom line As AI spends balloon, knowing the cost of running a Service in Production and factoring Pricing models and orchestrating the Revenue per Account Growth will be crucial. Product Led Growth Design & build around how you grow as your customers get more value out of your Products. Delight your Customers In a SaaS economy, the responsibility of a renewal lies entirely with the Product team - deliver delight in every experience you ship.
12. 12 Chandi Kodthiwada 1. AI dissolves functional silos - empowering Product Management, Research & design, Engineering, and Product Marketing alike to seamlessly execute each other’s core responsibilities for a limited time. ◦ Create that fluidity and tooling for your teams 2. Armed with AI’s analytical powers, PMs have an opportunity to step up to a General Manager role to drive growth for their businesses.