How PMs should think about fewer product roles right now

Can you still call it "product management"? I suspect the term will be with us for some time. The role, as it is understood today, will not. AI has fundamentally changed what product managers can do on their own, and that is reshaping what the job actually is.

Many product managers are already using AI well beyond what used to be considered the job — synthesizing large bodies of research, sketching early solutions, and even building internal tools without writing code. (We recently launched Aha! Builder for that last part.)

"Full-stack" product building is already here. The boundaries between roles are getting fuzzy. Everyone has more range than they used to.

This is already happening at many companies. It means there are fewer roles in product development, and people are being asked to do more. We spoke about this in theory just months ago. Now, LinkedIn replaced its associate product manager program with a full-stack builder model. Google's open product management roles now call for experience applying AI across end-to-end product work. And recent Stanford research shows that roles most exposed to automation by AI are already seeing fewer junior positions, while ones augmented by AI are staying steady.

Some companies are out in the front. But AI adoption across the industry has been uneven, which means role consolidation will be too. I still believe the timeline for long-term transformation will be longer than the current hype suggests.

Technology takes time to mature, and changing how people work takes even longer.

Still, this shift is coming. If you have been treating this as something to revisit later, it is time to take it seriously.

What changes with role consolidation?

Role consolidation for PMs is not just about taking on more AI-driven tasks and going faster. You still need to build what people need and will value. But you can do it more effectively now. For example, when you can build a working prototype yourself, you walk into design conversations with something concrete instead of trying to describe what you are imagining. That clarity helps you better communicate your product vision. And the designer can focus on solving interaction problems instead of translating your rough ideas.

The same goes for designers who can validate technical feasibility on their own — engineers can start building because the interactions are already clear and corner cases are worked out.

Everyone can push further, meaning teams can bring more sophisticated work to the table and get to solutions that serve customers better.

Here is what this looks like in practice for product managers whose roles are expanding. (Including some links to an Aha! AI prompt that can help.)

• Analyzing thousands of customer ideas to surface patterns and themes

• Synthesizing qualitative research from dozens of customer interviews

• Running competitive analysis and market assessments without needing research support

• Generating multiple solution concepts and wireframes for new features

• Building rapid prototypes to test ideas before involving engineering

• Writing technical specifications and acceptance criteria at engineering depth

• Creating data visualizations and executive dashboards for stakeholder updates

• Developing comprehensive launch plans with messaging frameworks already in place

• Building trusted applications and improving them

That last one is particularly significant. Product managers are now product builders. This is why we recently announced Aha! Builder, so product managers can create applications themselves without needing technical knowledge.

The early access program is open now

Make the most of this new era

I have spoken with product managers who welcome this shift because they can finally build capabilities they have only been able to advocate for in the past. Others feel uneasy. Product management already demands a lot. Expanding the role feels like stretching an already broad mandate even thinner.

But role consolidation is not something you can opt out of — the direction is set. That is obvious after speaking with dozens of product leaders over the last few months. You can wait and see what happens to your role, or you can decide how you want to work now. Here are a few ways to make the most of the change:

• Embrace the opportunity: If your first reaction to role consolidation is worry about what you might lose or how much harder your job will get, you are missing what is opening up. You now have direct control over more work that used to require coordinating schedules and waiting on other teams. You can test whether an idea works this week instead of next month.

• Grow new skills: This is a chance to expand into areas you have always been curious about and wanted to do yourself. Getting competent at capabilities you have only watched other people handle gives you the ability to influence that work directly instead of hoping someone else gets it right.

• Partner with colleagues: Work with your team to figure out how responsibilities will change and who will do what. Negotiation about boundaries and ownership is part of this. Working it out together keeps you from guessing or stepping on work someone else still owns.

• Honor colleagues who have lost responsibilities (or roles): Some people will lose responsibilities they wanted to keep or see their roles redefined in ways they did not expect. That is painful and deserves acknowledgment and care. We are all product builders and need one another to get better at our craft.

Some organizations will handle this transition more smoothly than others. What you can control is how ready you are to work in new ways and how deliberately you shape your role as expectations continue to change.

Product management is not going away. But it is moving closer to building. And while there might be fewer roles overall, each person will be expected to do more. The product managers who engage with that shift now will have far more control than those who wait for someone else to define it for them.

Aha! Builder is the fastest way to build internal business applications with AI — no code needed. See how.