Product Management in the Age of AI: Top Trends for 2025

Hey—Spencer here. Let’s talk about product management in 2025, the AI twist, and why it’s turning everything upside down for product teams. When I was younger, I remember thinking it’d be cool if I could just focus on the building and offload all of the busywork—turns out AI might finally make that dream a reality. I recently chatted with Carlos from Product School (we even joked about how “which came first: the product or the manager?” is the new chicken-and-egg). So let’s break down these top trends—AI-first strategies, usage-based pricing, and the goldmine of internal data.

1. The Evolution of Product Management Roles

For ages, “product manager” has meant a million different things at a million different companies. By 2025, that vagueness is on its way out (thank goodness). Why? AI is zapping the mind-numbing, manual tasks so PMs can get back to real, high-impact work.

1. Automating Operational Tasks
   • No more writing the same status updates or sifting through hours of feedback.
   • Tools like BuildBetter auto-record calls, extract relevant user signals, and generate docs you used to spend hours cobbling together by hand.
2. Redefining Core PM Responsibilities
   • If AI handles the grunt work, PMs get to focus on the big picture.
   • Strategy, stakeholder alignment, and driving true product vision become the PM’s bread and butter.

Hot Take: In the past, companies often hired a “product person,” realized they needed something different, and then started over. By 2025, the job’s scope will be clear: hire folks who excel at big-picture thinking and let AI handle the rest.

2. AI-First vs. AI-Sprinkles

Ever seen a website squished onto a phone screen? That’s what “AI-sprinkles” looks like: a half-baked chatbot slapped on a legacy tool. But “AI-first” means building around AI from the ground up—like we did with mobile-first, only now it’s large language models and deep data context.

1. Pure AI-First Solutions
   • Think BuildBetter, which runs on LLMs and proprietary data from day one.
   • It’s not just adding GPT features; it’s re-engineering entire workflows around AI.
2. AI Wrappers
   • Legacy apps bolt on something GPT-like and call it a day.
   • Usually underwhelming because they lack context or real synergy with the rest of the product.

Pro Tip: Don’t get tricked by “AI-sprinkles.” If the AI isn’t woven into your daily product flow, it’s like adding neon lights to a broken-down car. Sure, it glows—but it doesn’t go any faster.

3. Usage-Based Pricing Is Here to Stay

Per-seat pricing was the default for B2B software: the more butts in seats, the more you pay. But with AI-driven products, that model often penalizes adoption instead of celebrating it.

1. Per-Seat Penalizes Adoption
   • Teams shy away from adding new users to save costs, stifling collaboration.
   • Product managers need cross-team insights—this defeats the entire point.
2. Usage-Based Encourages Value
   • At BuildBetter, you pay for data usage (we call them DDUs).
   • If AI saves you time (and money), you’ll feed it more data—meaning you get more value, and we have to keep proving ourselves.

Insider Insight: It flips the script. We’re incentivized to deliver meaningful results so you’ll trust us with more of your data. If our AI doesn’t help you, you won’t load more data, and we don’t get paid. Simple as that.

4. Internal Data Is the New Goldmine

I used to imagine AI rummaging through my old notes, Slack logs, and recorded calls, surfacing hidden gems of insight I’d never spot alone. Now that vision is real: AI has the infinite patience to sift through thousands of data points.

1. Infinite Patience
   • AI doesn’t tire. It’ll happily munch on every snippet from dev stand-ups, sales calls, or support tickets.
   • Real-time signals pop up effortlessly, revealing patterns or blockers in plain English.
2. Combining Signals
   • Why guess what customers want?
   • AI can cluster feedback, highlight repeated complaints, and spit out the top action items—no more random hunches or “I think I remember someone mentioning...”

Game-Changer: Everyone touts a “single source of truth.” By 2025, that’s not enough. Tools need to connect your internal + external data and let you query it in everyday language. That’s the real gold.

5. Specific AI Use Cases for PMs

Let’s get concrete—what does AI actually do for product teams right now?

1. No More Manual Docs
   • Talk for 15 minutes, upload the audio, label speakers, and watch as AI autogenerates a PRD or user stories.
   • If something’s off, you edit or regenerate—no more messing around in Google Docs for hours.
2. Automated User Research Analysis
   • Filter calls by sentiment, keywords, or time range.
   • Find that exact clip where a beta tester struggled with your onboarding.
3. Proactive Reporting
   • AI can send daily or weekly summaries of top feature requests or blockers.
   • Leadership gets quick status updates without you writing the same old “where we at?” bullet points.

6. The Road Ahead for Product Teams

AI isn’t just about automating chores. By 2025, it’s rearranging the product org chart itself. No more “jack of all trades, master of none.” We’ll see specialized product ops for the tactical side, while strategic PMs handle vision and innovation.

1. Vision & Strategy
   • Dig into deep insights, pivot the product direction, and rally teams around the roadmap.
2. User-Centric Storytelling
   • With the heavy lifting done by AI, you can focus on why users want X or Y.
3. Real Innovation
   • Freed from admin tasks, PMs can finally chase bold ideas and disruptive features.

Final Thought: AI won’t replace product folks—it’ll replace the grunt work that’s been holding them back. It’s that simple.

Conclusion

Product management is barreling toward a massive shakeup. AI-first platforms—like BuildBetter—prove it’s possible to centralize your org’s data, parse it with AI, and generate real intelligence faster than ever. Expect smaller PM teams driving huge impact, usage-based pricing (so nobody’s scared of seat counts), and product managers who can finally focus on strategy, not doc formatting.

We’ll look back in a few years and chuckle about seat-based pricing the same way we laugh at ancient cell phones. And if you’re curious about how BuildBetter works, check us out—we’re living proof that an AI-first approach can legit transform the day-to-day for product teams everywhere.

About BuildBetter

BuildBetter is an AI-first platform that tackles the operational side of product management—no seat-based nonsense, just usage-based clarity. We auto-record or import your calls, parse internal + external feedback, and spin up documents in seconds. Because, really, who wants to waste time writing status reports when you could be building the future?

Side note: If you thought “AI was too hype,” trust me, it’s not. We’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible when you combine the right data with the right large language models.

Written by Spencer Shulem, CEO at BuildBetter, after chatting with Carlos from Product School. Stay tuned for more insights on product management, AI, and the future of work—because this is just the beginning...