The growing trend to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into various products across a wide range of industries has brought the convergence of AI and product development into sharp focus. Today's market environment is diverse and rapidly changing. Users demand more from businesses, and they are taking advantage of user data to gain insights, solve complicated business challenges, and deliver solutions in previously unimaginable ways. Businesses of all sizes are dabbling in AI and machine learning in order to provide more value to their users and delight their customers. And for this, an AI expert is required.

Those are a few examples of challenges a product manager might face when working with artificial intelligence. As someone who has practiced the craft for decades (I founded a company that built an AI-related, algorithmic product and now run product management for applied AI for Xerox at PARC), I want to share some thoughts on what is distinctive about product management for AI. Product managing AI-based applications is still product management, but it requires some additional know-how, and maybe even some magic dust. While the role of product manager has been around since the '30s, the specifics of the job function (the "mini-CEO") have generally been vague. Nevertheless, the popularity of careers in product management have soared in recent years.