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AI, over the past few years you have been getting into most of our daily-use products. Whether it is personalized streaming videos on Netflix, or ChatGPT helping others generate useful prompts, etc — every AI being used is making the magic happen in the backest of all the back-end scenes. This however begs an interesting question — how do these AI features get made, shipped in our products, and see the light of day? Enter the AI Product Manager.
An AI product manager’s role is to ensure the effective usage of AI so that it can address real user problems, thus helping in the creation of more intelligent and valuable products. In this blog, we’ll go into detail about what an AI Product Manager does, how this role is different from traditional product management, and how you can become one.
If you’re planning to transition into this role or simply trying to satisfy your curiosity about how AI products are managed, you’ll find everything you need here.
As the name suggests, AI product management involves managing products that use artificial intelligence to improve their efficiency and functionality. Let’s dissect the concept a little further to understand how an AI product manager’s role is different from that of a traditional product manager’s role. The latter usually focuses on building a new app feature, gathering feedback from customers, optimizing the feature according to the feedback and making sure the customer needs are met. On the other hand, the role of an AI product manager looks a little different. Here, like traditional product management, you have to focus on how a particular feature works. But you also need to understand how the AI behind the feature is functioning.
Okay, for the sake of a better understanding of the concept, assume that you are working for an e-commerce site, and your role is to build an AI-powered recommendation engine. This recommendation engine will suggest products to users based on their past browsing and purchase history. Now, as an AI Product Manager, your job is to understand the kind of data this AI feature needs, to give you accurate recommendations. You also have to make sure that there is a continuous improvement in the algorithm as it gets more data.
You need to understand that this is not just about the technical side. You also have to be empathetic enough to understand how users will experience the AI. Are you making sure that the suggested products are genuinely useful? Can the users easily understand why the AI is making certain recommendations? All these points have to be taken care of.
Product Manager for AI: ensures that the products that use AI in their processes deliver real value to the users. It combined the usual stuff of product management — like defining a product vision and working with various teams — with more depth in artificial intelligence.
To explain this better (with a real-world scenario), suppose you are working on a fitness app that uses AI to learn the preferences and ability level of the user and suggest workouts for them. The AI Product Manager is responsible for ensuring the AI recommends workout routines that are personalized to the user, and that these recommendations get better with time. Data scientists who build the AI algorithms to improve app features. You will be working with data scientists who build the AI algorithms and engineers who implement these features into the app
But the job is about more than just ensuring the AI doesn’t fail. It does not just stop there — it is also about providing an honest and well-thought user experience. When users get frustrated and abandon the app (because the workout was too hard, or not a good match to their goals), that is bad for everyone. The AI Product Manager needs to be able to understand a little bit about how the sausage is made, and also ensure that these decisions are being made according to user needs.
The AI Product Manager is essentially the glue between your engineering and data scientist teams on one side, and the users on the other side. The Most Important: The end goal is that the AI makes the product stronger and that it carries users through to feel like they are benefiting from using it.
AI and machine learning (ML) are reshaping product management by making products more data-driven and dynamic. Traditionally, product managers relied on user feedback, market research, and gut instinct to shape their products. Now, AI and ML allow product managers to leverage large amounts of data to make more informed decisions.
Think about Spotify’s music recommendation feature. Instead of just guessing what users might like, Spotify uses AI to analyze listening habits and suggests songs that align with a user’s preferences. This is made possible by machine learning algorithms that learn from the data and continuously improve their predictions.
As an AI Product Manager, your role is to guide these AI-driven products by making sure the algorithms are effective and the data is relevant. This shift to AI-driven decision-making means that product managers no longer just oversee product features—they need to understand how AI models work and how they can be optimized.
AI also introduces the concept of continuous learning. AI models don’t just stay the same after the product is launched. They evolve and improve as they process more data. For an AI Product Manager, this means you have to be actively involved in tracking the AI’s performance, fine-tuning the model, and ensuring it adapts to changing user needs.
An AI Product Manager has a very holistic approach as his/her role demands traditional product management skills product management skill set with an acute focus on AI technology. So what do your responsibilities look like on a normal day?
If you’re stepping into the role of an AI Product Manager or aiming to improve in this field, here are some practical tips:
The journey to becoming an AI Product Manager involves a mix of education, experience, and a willingness to dive into the world of AI. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get there:
To excel as an AI Product Manager, you’ll need a variety of skills, including:
Salaries for AI Product Managers in India can differ hugely depending on factors like experience, company size, and location. Here’s a rough estimate based on recent reports from Payscale and Glassdoor:
For example, an AI Product Manager at a large company like Infosys or Wipro with 5-7 years of experience might earn around ₹25,00,000 annually. At a high-growth startup, this could go even higher due to the increasing demand for AI expertise.
Becoming an AI Product Manager is more than just overseeing the development of AI-powered features—it’s about using artificial intelligence to create meaningful and valuable solutions for users. As AI continues to shape industries, the demand for skilled AI Product Managers is growing rapidly.
The role requires a unique blend of product management expertise and a solid understanding of AI and data science. But beyond the technical knowledge, it’s also about having a deep focus on user experience, ethical responsibility, and continuous learning. Whether you’re ensuring an AI system is fair, guiding a machine learning model to make better predictions, or collaborating with teams to build something new, AI Product Managers play a critical role in bringing the benefits of artificial intelligence to everyday products.
If you’re passionate about technology and enjoy solving real-world problems, this could be an exciting and rewarding path for you. Take the time to build a foundation in product management, learn the basics of AI, and stay curious. The opportunities in AI product management are vast, and with the right skills, you can help shape the future of how AI is integrated into the products that improve our lives.
AI product management is the process of developing, launching, and managing products that use artificial intelligence to enhance functionality and solve problems for users.
No, AI Product Managers don’t typically need to code. However, they should understand the basics of AI and machine learning to communicate effectively with technical teams.
AI Product Managers are in demand across a wide range of industries, including technology, finance, healthcare, retail, and manufacturing. Any industry that is incorporating AI into its products needs this role.
AI Product Managers work closely with data scientists to ensure that the data being used to train AI models is relevant, accurate, and free from bias. They also monitor the performance of AI models to ensure they are delivering the desired outcomes.
Some of the biggest challenges include ensuring that AI models are unbiased and ethical, making sure that the AI delivers real value to users, and continuously improving the AI as more data becomes available.
Yes, AI product management is a promising career as AI continues to transform industries, driving innovation and efficiency. Product managers in this field play a key role in developing AI solutions that meet market needs, making it highly rewarding. With growing demand for AI-driven products, skilled AI product managers are in high demand across sectors.
Though AI is very helpful to product managers, it is highly unlikely that it will ever replace product management.
Breaking into AI product management needs a mix of education, learning about data science, AI and ML, getting a hands-on experience and finding a mentor who can help you in the transition process.
