Product Managers Are All in on AI, but Skills Gaps and Shadow AI Pose Risks, New Report Finds

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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 6, 2025--

While 98% of product managers use AI at work, only 39% received comprehensive, job-specific training and two-thirds (66%) admitted to using unapproved AI tools, a survey from tech and AI training company General Assembly found.

“Tech product management teams are naturally early and strong adopters of AI,” said Beatrice Partain, director of product management at General Assembly. “But the complexity, scale and accountability of PM work exceed what informal learning can reliably provide. The AI fluency gained through job-specific training can turn experimentation into scale, taking AI skills beyond surface-level productivity boosts to accelerate strategic decisions and innovation.”

Nearly half (45%) of product managers reported that they learned AI on their own, even though they use it, on average, 11 times a day and many already use AI for advanced and agentic use cases. More than three-quarters (78%) said they use AI agents, while nearly a third (31%) use AI to design custom language models, specialized AI agents, domain-adapted GPTs or CustomGPTs.

What are the most common use cases for AI in product management?

• Managing product development cycles, spring planning and delivery - 54%
• Cross-functional collaboration - 52%
• Creating product strategies and roadmaps - 48%
• Developing customer interviews or role-playing interviews - 46%
• Backlog grooming, ticket creation or QA support - 44%
• Analyzing customer feedback - 42%

However, there are skills gaps in the tasks product managers would like to learn how to use AI for compared to those they already do. For example, 47% said they would like to learn “vibe coding,” or prototyping and validating product concepts without needing to depend on engineering, but only 38% said they are doing so today.

Product managers reported that AI had a positive impact on their teams and work, with 97% saying AI helped their department make decisions faster and 98% saying it improved their product lifecycle. Only 1% said there are fewer people on their team since they started using AI, but 66% said it has improved productivity without headcount growth and 26% said their team has expanded.

However, fears around the future of product management careers remain, as 26% said their top concern is that AI could eventually replace them, 25% said it’s that AI could make it harder for entry-level product management employees to learn, and 22% said it’s that AI could eventually replace their colleagues.

To stay on the cutting edge of AI skills, product managers said they want to receive regular training updates as AI tools evolve (64%), attend peer learning sessions with colleagues (51%), complete self-paced trainings that include product-specific examples (49%), have access to ongoing support and troubleshooting resources (40%) and attend interactive workshops focused on specific product use cases (37%).

General Assembly surveyed 117 product managers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore from October 2 to 13, 2025. Respondents worked at companies with at least 100 employees, and managed products including software and digital services. To learn more, visit the General Assembly blog.

About General Assembly
General Assembly (GA), an LHH brand, is the leading talent and upskilling partner that helps individuals and businesses acquire the real skills required to succeed in an increasingly complex technological era. Founded in 2011 to make tech-centric jobs accessible to anyone and meet the demand of fast-growing tech companies, GA evolved into a center of excellence in training people from all backgrounds to upgrade their practical knowledge of tech skills now required in every company and in any role. With a global presence, hands-on instruction, and a passionate alumni community, GA gives learners 360-degree support as they take the next step in their career journey. General Assembly is part of LHH, the professional talent solutions arm of The Adecco Group, the world’s leading talent advisory and solutions company. GA matches the right talent to business needs. All day, every day: GA puts real skills to work.

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SOURCE: General Assembly

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PUB: 11/06/2025 09:01 AM/DISC: 11/06/2025 09:01 AM

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