We’re all seeing the flood of AI tools designed to make our lives as PMs easier. AI can summarize user interviews in seconds, analyze thousands of feedback tickets for themes, and even draft initial user stories. The promise is incredible: more time for ‘deep work’ and strategy by offloading the grunt work.
But I have a nagging concern. Are we creating a dangerous layer of abstraction between ourselves and our users? True empathy isn’t just about identifying keywords and sentiment scores. It’s about hearing the hesitation in a user’s voice, seeing the frustration on their face during a usability test, and feeling the weight of their problem. These are the raw, emotional data points that often lead to breakthrough insights.
When we let AI do all the summarizing and synthesizing, we risk filtering out these crucial nuances. We might get an efficient summary, but we lose the visceral connection. The ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ can get lost in the algorithm. Efficiency is a powerful lure, but it should never come at the cost of genuine customer intuition. We need to be the pilot, not just a passenger relying on the autopilot.
How are you and your team using AI tools while ensuring you stay deeply and directly connected to the unfiltered voice of your customer?