How AI Is Changing the

World of Product
Management
Jim Hare
@HareInsights

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 By 2025, 80% of
product managers
will rely on AI to
assist with tasks
and increase
productivity.

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Key Issues

1. What are the four ways AI is changing product management?

2. What does it mean to be an AI product manager?

3 © 2021 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates.
Key Issues

1. What are the four ways AI is changing product management?

2. What does it mean to be an AI product manager?

4 © 2021 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates.
Impact of AI on Product Management

Intelligent Embedded AI
Applications

AI Building Product Customer Behavioral

Blocks Experiences Insights Analysis

Software AI-Augmented
Development Development

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Three Pillars of Intelligent Applications

Automation Augmentation Adaptive

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Using Behavioral Analytics to Understand
Customer Journeys

Product Intelligence
• Product usage
• Feature adoption
• A/B testing
• Path analysis
• User behavior
analysis
• Segmentation/
Cohort analysis
• Struggle detection
• Real-time in-app
feedback

7 Source: Amplitude
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Future Automation Level in Software Development
Understanding Needs By 2024, 50% of software
development projects will
Design leverage virtual AI co-
developers on the team
Coding and Unit Test

Integration and
Acceptance Test

Deploy
Artificial Intelligence
Project Management Scripted Automation

Training & Other Total Effort

Source: IT Key Metrics Data 2020: Applications Measures — Application Development Analysis

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Evolution of AI in Application Development
Automated Application
Dynamic Creation

Augmented Situational Apps

Application (Automated)
Development
AI generates the
Composite Apps application
(Augmented)
Embedded AI
AI works alongside
Low-Code the expert/citizen
Assembly (Manual) developer

AI as an ingredient
We are here
Static
Human-Driven AI-Driven

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Product Experiences Composed From AI
Building Blocks
Personalized
Simplicity Experiences

Advisor Recommender Predictor

AI Building
Diagnostic Simulator Benchmark
Blocks

Alerting Connector Automation

Complexity

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Key Issues

1. What are the four ways AI is changing product management?

2. What does it mean to be an AI product manager?

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Gartner Predicts

By 2025, software providers will compete on

the sophistication of advanced analytics
offered in their solutions.

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 Product Manager AI Product Manager

UX Product
Experience

Communication Business Data Use

Storytelling Cases

Technology Data and

AI Fluency

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 Product Experience
AI Is the Enabler for Transforming the
Product Experience
Sync Me — Be Me Model

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 Product Experience
Improved Product Experience Requires
Understanding and Engaging Users
Product User Web Marketing Data
Interactions Feedback Social Interactions Automation Management
Capture Signals

Product Feature Root Cause Customer Behavioral Dashboards/ Data

Usage Adoption Analysis Journey Analysis Reports Storytelling
Analyze

Behavioral 1:1 In-App A/B

Engage Targeting Recommendations Feedback Testing

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 Use Cases
Focusing on AI Use Cases — Not
Just Technology

Source: Infographic: Artificial Intelligence Use-Case Prism for Digital Commerce (G00730347)

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Address the Top End-User Barriers to
Adopting AI
Barriers to AI implementation AI & Data Fluency
Percentage of respondents
Security or privacy concerns 11% 30%
Complexity of AI solution(s) integration with existing infrastructure 11% 30%
Data volume and/or complexity 8% 22%
Potential risks or liabilities 7% 22%
Data scope or quality problems 6% 20%
Lack of understanding AI benefits and uses 6% 20%
Lack of technology knowledge 5% 19%
Data accessibility challenges 6% 19%
Little improvement over existing technologies 6% 18%
Lack of skills of staff 7% 18%
Technology is too difficult to use or deploy 5% 17%
Governance issues or concerns 5% 17%
Lack of capability to leverage AI techniques 6% 16% Sum of Top 3
Difficulty finding use cases 5% 15% 1st choice
Unable/hard to measure the value 3% 14%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

n = 601 All Respondents, Excluding Not Sure
Q18. What are the top 3 barriers to the implementation of AI techniques within your organization?
Source: Gartner 2019, AI in Organisations
Footnotes

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Understanding That Data Is an Even
Bigger Challenge
Barriers to AI implementation AI & Data Fluency
Percentage of respondents
Security or privacy concerns 11% 30%
Complexity of AI solution(s) integration with existing infrastructure 11% 30%
Data volume and/or complexity 8% 22%
Potential risks or liabilities 7% 22%
Data scope or quality problems 6% 20%
Lack of understanding AI benefits and uses 6% 20%
Lack of technology knowledge 5% 19%
Data accessibility challenges 6% 19%
Little improvement over existing technologies 6% 18%
Lack of skills of staff 7% 18%
Technology is too difficult to use or deploy 5% 17%
Governance issues or concerns 5% 17%
Lack of capability to leverage AI techniques 6% 16% Sum of Top 3
Difficulty finding use cases 5% 15% 1st choice
Unable/hard to measure the value 3% 14%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

n = 601 All Respondents, Excluding Not Sure

Q18. What are the top 3 barriers to the implementation of AI techniques within your organization?
Source: Gartner 2019, AI in Organisations
Footnotes
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Become Literate in the Different
AI TechniquesGartner’s AI Techniques Framework
AI & Data Fluency

Techniques usually
associated with AI

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Timing and Impact of AI Innovations Is Key
to Gaining Advantage and Differentiation
AI & Data Fluency

• AI democratization
o Citizen developer tools and
services, marketplaces, APIs
• Intelligent business insight and
automation
• Edge AI
o Acceleration of move from
cloud to edge
o Human-machine interactions

Source: Emerging Technologies and Trends Impact Radar: Artificial Intelligence (G00732340)
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 Data Storytelling

Impact of Data Storytelling

Inform

Decide Align
Data
Storytelling

Personalize Inspire
Humanize

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 Data Storytelling

AI Can Generate Data Stories Automatically

Dashboard With NLG Connected Slideshow

Infographic

Interactive Infographic ML-Driven Storytelling

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AI Product Managers Must Follow the
Right Formula
1. Use Cases
What are the most valuable use cases
with the quickest time to value?
2. Skills
Does your team have the necessary
skills to use AI techniques?
3. Data
Do you have the right data to address
the selected use case?
4. Technology
Given the problem, skills and data,
what are the right techniques?
5. Operationalization
What effort and skills are required to
deploy and manage the AI solution?

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Recommendations

AI Product Manager — evolve your mindset and skills to become data and AI
fluent to help both use AI in your job and build AI products
AI Formula — follow the AI recipe starting with use cases and product
experiences in building your AI offerings
Composable AI — create AI building blocks that can create personalized
experiences and make it easier to add intelligence to your product
Product Intelligence — invest in product analytics to capture customer
behavior and engage users
AI-Augmented Development — partner with software engineering to help
development understand how AI can help improve productivity and
speed of innovation

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The AI Product
Managers
Are Rising.

Are You Part of The

Revolution?

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Recommended Gartner Research
Product Manager Insight: Changes in Product Data and Insights
Through 2025
Aapo Markkanen and Kevin Quinn (G00732355)
Tech Providers 2025: Transforming the 2025 Product Experiences
Jessica Ekholm and Clifton Gilley (G00729783)
Emerging Technologies and Trends Impact Radar: Artificial Intelligence
Annette Jump, Danielle Casey, Eric Goodness and Others (G00732340)
Begin Your Text and Speech Analytics to Improve the Product Experience
Jessica Ekholm and Adrian Lee (G00726697)
3 Best Practices for Product Managers to Drive Adoption of Emotion AI
Technology
Annette Zimmermann and Brian Doherty (G00717124)

For information, please contact your Gartner representative.

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