When you start as a Product Owner, you notice a couple of things pretty fast. First: everyone expects something from you. Second: nobody really has time to tell you everything you should know. You’re supposed to understand customers, business, and technology. You’re supposed to prioritise, say no, explain why something happens now and not three months from now and at the same time you’re trying to figure out what this whole thing is even about.
Product ownership isn’t exactly a small patch of land. This is where AI can be surprisingly helpful. Not because it knows anything about your customers and not because it will make decisions for you. AI is useful because it works like a mirror. It makes visible perspectives other than your own.
AI works well as thinking support for a new Product Owner. It keeps asking questions, it helps structure things, and it never gets tired of you saying, “Can you phrase that more clearly?” AI is a bit like a sparring colleague who’s always around.
For Product Owners today, AI is basically a necessity. It’s likely AI won’t replace Product Owners but it’s a fair assumption that Product Owners who use AI will replace those who don’t.
We gathered ten solid tips for how a Product Owner can use AI to support their thinking.
1. Use AI to clarify your thoughts
In the beginning your head is usually full of everything: leadership goals, comments from user interviews, technical constraints, sales wishes. Everything feels important. One very simple approach is to write out for AI:
- Who the product is for
- What problem you’re solving
- What situation is the company in
Then ask: “Give me a few different ways to phrase this product vision.”
You’ll usually get a bunch of options: some mediocre, some a bit generic but every now and then there’s an angle that makes you think. Still, the vision doesn’t come from the machine. It comes from you. AI just helps you think more clearly.
2. If you can’t explain it simply, you’re not ready yet
This is a bit harsh, but true. If you can’t explain the vision so that anyone understands it, it’s not clear enough yet. You can ask AI to break it down using four questions:
- Who is this for?
- What problem are we solving?
- What gets better?
- Why does this matter right now?
If the answer still sounds like a PowerPoint slide, do another round. A good vision isn’t fancy. It’s understandable.
3. Don’t create ten goals
This is a classic beginner trap. Goals multiply easily, and suddenly everything is important. If everything is important, nothing really guides the work.
Try asking AI to propose 3–5 goals based on your vision and specifically ask for them to be described as a change, not as work.
“Build a new report” is work.
“Customers can find the information without contacting support” is a change.
As a Product Owner, your job isn’t to list tasks. Your job is to describe what will be better.
4. When it comes to metrics, slow down
You can always add more numbers, but useful metrics are rarer. Ask AI:
- How could we measure this goal?
- What would indicate real success?
- What might look good even if reality isn’t?
For example, your user count might grow. Great but if nobody comes back a second time, maybe value wasn’t created yet or the value is a one-time thing.
AI is good at asking those slightly annoying follow-up questions and those are often exactly what you need.
5. Your backlog doesn’t have to be perfect
At the beginning, the backlog is often messy. That’s normal. A good way to get moving is to describe the user journey: what do they do first? What do they do next? Where can things go wrong?
Ask AI to list the steps. You’ll get a structure, not a perfect list. Once you have a structure, it’s easier to start and that’s enough.
6. What’s the smallest sensible release?
This is a question worth turning over properly. The faster you get to market, the better. Perfection is the biggest enemy of “good enough.” Time is money, and fast feedback is a must in a world that changes quickly.
Describe the user’s main goal and ask AI to suggest the smallest coherent package you could release first. It helps you see:
- What’s truly critical
- What can wait
- Where the most value is created
Once you can see the whole, prioritisation gets a lot easier.
7. Challenge your own list
Once you’ve put your backlog in order, run a quick test.
Tell AI:
- These are the ten most important things
- Here’s why they’re in this order
Then ask it to look for weaknesses. It might ask:
- Are there assumptions here that haven’t been tested?
- Is there a risk that should be explored earlier?
- Is there something that creates value only very late?
You might not change everything, but your thinking will get sharper.
8. Clarify before you bring it to the team
Sometimes a task feels clear in your head, but it isn’t on paper. You can give AI your rough text and ask for:
- a clearer description from the user’s perspective
- suggested acceptance criteria
- a list of questions the team might ask
AI’s output doesn’t replace the team conversation but it makes the conversation much better.
9. Prepare just a little in advance
Before refinement or planning, you can ask AI to think through:
- What technical risks might be here?
- What dependencies could show up?
- What questions might developers ask?
When you’ve thought about these ahead of time, you won’t get blindsided from every direction. It brings a surprising amount of calm.
10. Write down why you decided what you decided
Product ownership is decisions often without perfect information. You can use AI to help:
- document what assumptions the decision is based on
- list risks
- draft a message for stakeholders
When the decision is stated clearly, it’s easier to return to later. If you need to change direction, you’ll know why. And even when you were right, it’s sometimes useful to be able to explain the reasoning.
In closing
AI is one tool among many, and it’s worth learning to use it in everyday work. AI won’t make you a great Product Owner — but it can make thinking easier. It can calm the chaos and act like a mirror. Sometimes that’s enough to make the next step a little clearer.
