In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, AI is no longer a distant concept but a transformative tool waiting to be leveraged. Here are 4 strategic steps for product managers and product leaders to get started with AI:
1. Understand AI Fundamentals
Just as product people need to have a basic understanding of their product's technology underpinnings, like cloud infrastructure and front-end frameworks, you have to start by understanding how AI works. Here are a few educational resources to get you started:
2. See How Product Teams are Leveraging AI
One of the most common questions I get is "I get this is a game-changing technology advancement, but what use cases are already gaining traction in the real world?". Here's a list of products that are already in the market to inspire you and show the art of the possible:
- Stitch Fix: How We’re Revolutionizing Personal Styling with Generative AI - a great example of how AI can take personalization to the next level by ingesting more data about an individual at a scale no person or previous tech could fathom
- agent.ai - an AI agent marketplace that showcases a future where we hire AI agents (like interns) to complete very specific tasks, which eventually could be strung together into a workflow (ex a trip planning agent that researches 2-3 summer vacation destinations, asks me to pick one and plans a 7-day itinerary based on my family's specific interests)
- Prodify Client Case Study: HUNGRY - see how we're helping our own client, HUNGRY, help their Customer Success Managers expand existing accounts by automating proposal generation and improving how tailored menus are to the needs of that company's employees
- Superhuman AI - see how this Gmail plugin is using AI to draft emails for customers overnight
- GoDaddy Airo - see how much time AI can save small business owners by not only creating their logo and website after they buy a domain, but also creating social media content to start building a following
- Google Cloud: 185 Real-World Gen AI Use Cases - look at how some of the biggest companies in the world are building AI solutions
- GitHub Copilot - 55% of developers prefer this AI coding assistant and it makes them 25% more efficient
3. Try Out Top AI Products
What better way to see what's possible with AI than to start experimenting with AI tools to understand their potential and limitations? Here are some good starting points:
- ChatGPT - the fastest growing product ever. Don't forget to:
- Try Dall-E by prompting it to generate images for you
- Click on the "Explore GPTs" in the left nav to see what customized GPTs are gaining traction in their marketplace
- Read up on prompt engineering and see how the output changes based on your prompt (hint, be specific and try starting with "you are an expert ______" so it can focus on that topic from its training data)
- Zoom AI Companion - if you use Zoom for meetings, the AI Companion will send a recap and action items from the meeting (you can control if and when the AI Companion joins a meeting)
- If you're a product person, try one of these:
- ChatPRD - a product copilot that can help with writing, refining and brainstorming
- UX Pilot - a decent way to generate wireframes quickly with a prompt (although they will require some iteration)
- Replit - a product that can help you create a working prototype by writing the code for you
4. Research Potential Competitors
- Try a Perplexity or Google search for your product or market category like "top AI __________ apps", where you put your product category into the blank line. Check out the landing pages of top companies, try their product if they have a free trial, and research their funding. Think about which ones might come after your customers if they gain traction or make good on their marketing claims.
- Check out AI products in your space on G2 - I find these review sites incredibly helpful not just to know what's being adopted in the market but also to read what separates 3-star products from 5-star products from actual customers
Don't be Blockbuster or brick-and-mortar retailers, who died because competitors like Netflix and Amazon (respectively) stole their customers with a better product experience.
Closing Thoughts: Embracing AI in 2025
I hope this "AI 101" post gives you a few ideas on how to get started with Artificial Intelligence. It's an incredible advancement in technology, and with that comes complexities in understanding its impact on your product, customers and business. Further complicating this is the pace at which AI is advancing - it's hard to keep up.
Ready to transform AI from an intimidating buzzword to a strategic advantage? Let's explore how Prodify can help grow your business or cut costs by automatically internal tasks, please reach out to us.
At Prodify, we see AI not as a replacement for human creativity, but as a powerful amplifier of human potential. Our approach is pragmatic: we help product teams integrate AI strategically, focusing on solving real customer problems rather than chasing technological trends.
We've already started advising many of our clients on these exact topics, and we're seeing that teams are all over the spectrum from just learning about AI to implementing some internal AI tools to rolling out their first customer-facing features. We can support you no matter where you are in the AI journey!
