Thoughts on AI and Product Ops

It’s no industry secret that AI is impacting far more than just entry level technical jobs. If it hasn’t already, AI will soon be in every product manager’s toolkit—putting it in direct contact with product operations. And that’s where I believe Prod Ops plays a unique role: not just leveraging AI, but shaping how it influences product development.

You might’ve noticed I’ve been deliberately saying “AI tools” because that’s exactly what I believe AI should be. A tool. Not a replacement. Yes, AI can be a thought partner, a heavy-lift analyst, and a time-saving automation layer. But no, it shouldn’t be the product manager or dictate actual product strategy.

In product operations, I believe our angle should be that of an AI experience designer. With our knowledge of the product lifecycle and the friction points we're constantly trying to unblock, we’re in the best position to tailor AI solutions that actually move the needle for product teams.

Take bug triaging for example. Traditionally, it might take hours or even days for Prod Ops to analyze trends and compile a report that helps drive product decisions. But what if we built prompts for that? We’d not only unblock PMs waiting for insights, we’d save ourselves hours we could reinvest into building better systems and tooling.

AI will let us work smarter and faster in ways that once felt like pipe dreams and product ops can be the curator of this new product development experience if we lean into prompt engineering and start reducing the volume of purely tactical work.