How To Navigate Through AI Disruptions In Product Management

Regardless of industry or market, we all have certainly heard about the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) over the last few years. What started as a concept and focus of tech enthusiasts looking to automate various computational tasks has suddenly erupted into what's been called disruptive innovation.

This disruptive innovation has greatly impacted most industries, but today, we are going to cover how it has affected product management and how we can survive through the disruption to come out on top.

What is disruptive innovation?

“Disruptive innovation” is a broad term used to describe anything that starts off obscure and unlikely to succeed but suddenly becomes a dominant part of the industry. Not only does a disruptive innovation become dominant, but it greatly impacts and challenges the existing strategies and methods used by long-established industry leaders.

In some ways, this is a good thing. It changes markets, creates new opportunities and displaces companies that rest on their laurels while aiding companies that embrace innovation. In other cases, it can make simply existing in the market nearly impossible.

The key to making sure AI disruption is not the latter situation for us is to learn to navigate its impact effectively and strategize in new ways for efficient product management.

Effectively navigate disruptive innovation from AI.

It’s difficult to see exactly how AI will impact a specific product and the user base it serves, whether it will be directly or indirectly disruptive, etc. The extreme pace at which AI is advancing also means that our understanding of its impact can change rapidly.

Based on my experience managing leading global AI-based products in retail, here are my key takeaways to keep in mind as we take a step back and refocus.

Identify the AI disruption and how it’s putting some products behind the curve.

The first step to solving any problem is always to figure out as much as possible about the problem. Currently, AI is rapidly taking over various businesses and products. And with this AI dominance, the product management strategy gets disrupted in various ways, leaving us behind the curve as other companies adapt.

The core strategy is to just investigate and understand how to put the AI disruption to the best use for product development and management. If product managers can identify the disruption and how it impacts the product accurately, we can start building a strategy to overcome it or even leverage it.

Reframe your mindset regarding adopting AI.

One mistake that a lot of product professionals make is that they see their product or service development getting impacted, sales going down and penetrating markets becoming harder, and they adopt a negative outlook on the situation.

Except, while a disruptive innovation like AI certainly does cause those issues, it also provides an almost unmatched degree of opportunity. In fact, the goal of most companies is to actively adapt to AI disruptions. As per a 2024 MIT Technology Review Insights survey, 78% of senior executives from various industries see generative AI as a competitive opportunity rather than as a threat.

If product managers can start looking at the AI disruption as a tool to move forward, the rest of the process will get a lot easier.

Analyze the competition and the trends of the user base.

Even the most niche product industries consist of countless companies going through similar or identical issues due to AI disruption.

While working within that context, product managers need to closely monitor competition that is successfully responding to the AI disruption and identify the changes they have adopted. Maybe they have changed their approach to marketing, or perhaps they have embraced AI and started leveraging it to enhance their product capabilities. This can give product managers an idea of where to get started with their own product innovation.

Analyzing the target audience is also crucial. As the disruption creates new products and services, the customer base changes. Their needs and pain points change, their expectations for quality standards and features change and more. The product strategy that has been adopted for years might no longer be effective or meet the customer’s needs, but a slight change might regain position in the market.

Create a clear game plan and pivot early.

When a disruption as massive as AI has an impact, things begin to change rapidly. Some of the companies we look back on fondly, which are no longer around, did not fail because the disruption they faced was too much. They failed because they chose not to adapt at all or they chose to adapt too slowly.

Blockbuster and Nokia are great examples of this. The movie rental industry was greatly disrupted as Redbox and Netflix gained popularity. Blockbuster stood by its previously proven methods for a long time, and in the end, its attempts to innovate were not enough. Nokia was dominant in the cell phone market, but it struggled to adapt to the new expectations of customers as smartphones developed. Phone models weren’t updated frequently enough, hardware was lackluster and attempts to meet consumer needs were behind each time.

The same thing can happen now with product management, and a key takeaway is that product managers not only need to analyze the disruption for information but also need to formulate an effective strategy quickly, implement it and then pivot to a new strategy if it’s not working. While we wait for our game plan to pay off, everyone else is moving forward.

The AI disruption does not have to be negative.

AI has caused quite an uproar in the last couple of years, and while it has been a great concern for many in product management and elsewhere, it doesn’t need to be a negative situation.

Learning to navigate a rapidly changing market with something as powerful as AI at the forefront can be challenging, but given the right steps, it can also be extremely fruitful.

Source: forbes.com