After talking with product professionals from around the world, we learned that 2025 was full of challenges, from rapid AI adoption and high expectations to reduced resources and shifting buyer behavior.
Product teams are saying AI is accelerating output, but it’s not automatically improving judgment.
Teams are measured on revenue and profit, but lack decision systems built for that level of accountability. Expectations have risen faster than the structures that turn strategy into repeatable action.
Teams report spending less time on rote work and more time on strategy, aided by AI and automation. However, much of that reclaimed time is absorbed by coordination and alignment rather than market learning or decision clarity. Strategy is present, but often fragile.
AI usage is no longer the dividing line. AI adoption has reached a steady state across many teams, concentrating on efficiency and analysis use cases. What separates teams is whether AI strengthens judgment and insight, or simply accelerates existing ways of working.
Across strategy, prioritization, AI usage, and execution, the same pattern appears: teams know what good looks like, but lack systems to sustain it under pressure. In the absence of clear decision ownership, shared signals, and consistent frameworks, work defaults to coordination, opinion, and acceleration without clarity.
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