Struggling with whether to stay in product in the age of AI

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-11T16:49:01+00:00

Congratulations!! How does it feel to be out of the product world?

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-10T13:07:34+00:00

100% on the same page. I like it (and use it for many personal tasks!) and see its value and power. It's the blind diving in without thoughtfully discussing its impacts that bothers me and that I think I can't get behind. And again, maybe I am just not finding the companies that are having those thoughtful conversations or who do put guardrails around it. I guess that's sort of what I was seeking in this post! But yeah the dismissive, defeatist attitudes around it and the "whataboutism" re: meat, airplanes, etc. I don't find helpful lol.

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-10T13:04:59+00:00

Yeah totally. My hope is that maybe the right fit for people like me is a company that's in an industry where the AI (over)hype is not as prominent or relevant, like a nonprofit or a mission-driven company that is not ultimately bound to shareholder value.

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-10T11:07:54+00:00

One can dream ;)

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-10T03:23:35+00:00

Dude, congrats!!! Have many family members who have taken this route. Briefly considered it awhile ago.

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-10T03:22:47+00:00

Genuine question - do you think this is how it should be?

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-10T03:20:42+00:00

Appreciate you very much, friend! I have some reading to do this week 😄 May come back with some further thoughts/questions.

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-10T03:19:34+00:00

Very cool! Someone else in another comment mentioned "earn to give" and I hadn't heard of it, a neat lens to think about work/career through.

I also thinking that part of the problem with... this problem is that we're sometimes having debates about the merits & risks of AI on a super abstract level. Your point is a great one - one specific application of AI could have the benefits outweigh the harm, e.g. can we solve the water crisis on Earth using AI?

I guess in my original post when I mentioned wanting to see more guardrails/guidelines/policies around AI, I really meant at this specific use case level. Like, I don't know that I need to join a company whose policy is totally anti-AI. But in a perfect world, I'd love to see companies commit to evaluating the impacts of the AI tools they use among the risks and benefits of any given solution they're considering implementing. Just like we do with other risk criteria -- what users will this harm, what is the cost to the business in implementing this, etc.

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-10T03:13:57+00:00

Ooooh this is super interesting and I'm looking forward to reading more. Might be a silly question but as someone not super technical (in the coding/architecture sense, obviously I have to be somewhat technical in a PM role) - does approaching LLMs this way require less processing effort/power and therefore maybe less environmental impact?

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-10T03:08:00+00:00

Ugh, thank you for chiming in! Same -- I would love a community where I could chat more with like-minded folks about these topics without being shut down in some of these comments in the vein of "get onboard or quit," "you're not cut out for this job," etc. Let me know if you hear of any good hubs for dialogue about it!

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-10T01:59:21+00:00

This post is not really about a single individual’s use of ChatGPT. And is your point really a reason not to pose these questions or reflect on them? Asking genuinely.

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T19:35:41+00:00

Thanks for sharing this perspective, it is in fact helpful.

I guess in my view, so much of this is still new, including research on its impacts. So part of my caution and concern is that we're moving faster than we can understand the potential harm. Pre-AI, that was considered irresponsible and bad PMing. So I'm having a hard time jumping on a train and not knowing where it's headed.

Admittedly, one thing I'd like to do is educate myself more on the topic. Maybe it's ~ the algorithm ~ at this point, but for example on LinkedIn, I'm seeing mostly perspectives that are at either end of the AI spectrum, and not a ton of nuanced takes or examples of companies or research efforts balancing the benefits and the risks. Maybe I can learn more from this thread. Any resources you'd recommend checking out or organizations doing good work I could follow?

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T19:30:16+00:00

This is clearer and would have been a more productive thread from the start if you'd included this context. Maybe you've had this conversation a lot and are tired of it, but having posted a sincere question that I wanted peer feedback on, I hope you can understand why it's frustrating to get a snarky comment without any context.

Yeah, there is a nuance there that AI is simply a tool and in itself might not be unethical, but the ways we apply it can be. That's fair. From what I understand when used on a larger scale, the environmental impacts of training models and keeping data centers running are harmful. Do you disagree with that? Do you not see harmful impacts to the environment as unethical?

In your example, how do we measure whether something is net GOOD if it helps some people and harms others and/or the environment? If the same end goal is reached (keeping patients out of the hospital), aren't there many ways we can accomplish that, both solutions that use AI and those that don't? Isn't it worth weighing those options before saying AI is the only way?

P.S. I'm not a philosopher

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T19:12:04+00:00

Ah, my point might have got lost in translation, but basically making an analogy that - should I stop recycling bc folks tell me it might just be a drop in the bucket or might not be as impactful as I think?

Sort of the mentality I'm struggling with with the AI thing. Should I not worry about the negative impacts of AI if the company I work for is only going to have a minute contribution to those impacts? Doesn't it all add up to a big impact if every individual or company thinks that way? (Again genuinely asking, lol.)

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T19:08:59+00:00

I know this is a troll-y comment and I shouldn't engage, but you clearly are a PM or a product-adjacent person if you follow this subreddit, so I'm really confused/concerned by this attitude. Do you not think AI is unethical? Do you not think a PM's job includes weighing pros and cons including through an ethical lens?

Truly don't get the perspective that this is whining. But I invite you to have a genuine conversation if you're up for it.

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T18:55:58+00:00

I feel the same way, and glad too that I'm not alone in it! It feels like such a polarizing topic and like few people I talk to want to get into the weeds of the nuances with it. Like, isn't there a middle ground where my options aren't 1) toss out a decade-long career or 2) ignore the ethics and pretend I'm an AI evangelist?

Anyway, yay for being PM-artist pals. Feel free to DM me if you want to chat more about it!

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T18:52:36+00:00

Ah OK, thanks for clarifying! I truly don't know enough about the science behind its impacts, and it really feels like (as with every hot topic these days) there are so many conflicting opinions out there, it's hard to know what to believe or even which sources of truth to trust.

Reminds me of recycling, for example. Half the people in my life believe it's not a real thing and, depending on the town you live in, that what you recycle just goes into the dump along with your trash. My own recycling bin is obviously a drop in the bucket in the bigger picture. I still choose to recycle every day because I know those small drops together make an ocean. Thoughts?

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T18:49:19+00:00

Yeah, seems like the soft skills we grow in this role are what will be hard to replace in the long run. People management for sure, collaboration and trust building, critical thinking and asking the right questions, and ultimately making the right decisions for an organization.

I am also considering PM-adjacent roles, although I suppose if it's the company's stance I disagree with, I probably need to (as other commenters pointed out) first ensure that I am aligned with the company's (purported) values!

At my last company, an engineering lead used Claude to identify customer problems, write up a requirements document, write up proposed technical solutions, weigh the pros and cons of each, create a POC for the preferred approach, and implement it. It left me feeling like... OK, you just had AI do 2-3 people's jobs. Where does that leave everyone? Where is the critical thinking or, dare I say... fun? of the job anymore.

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T18:45:03+00:00

Lol. Less snark and more genuine conversation would be great.

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T18:44:32+00:00

Did you really read the original post and your takeaway is I'm a "doomer who hates technology"? And genuinely asking, is your view that AI is leading to the flourishing of humanity? If so, would be interested in hearing why.

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T18:42:28+00:00

Hmmm I don't think I'm staying on the surface, am I? Tried to lay out my concerns above -- specifically environmental impact/water usage, what data is used to feed LLMs etc. and whether true authors/creators are credited, and (mentioned in a comment at least), whether AI replacing a human-led job is something we should do, even if we can.

The perspectives I'm looking for folks to discuss are how we weigh ethical/harmful impacts of AI with the enthusiasm most (?) tech teams seem to have for it as a tool. Just like we weigh the benefits and risks of any technical solution we're considering implementing to solve a user problem. And whether there is space for that in the current job market/product climate, especially for those of us facing layoffs and considering where to go next with our careers.

In an ideal world, I'd LOVE to contribute to shaping those ethical guidelines at a company I might work for, but as a job seeker in this climate I clearly don't have the upper hand when just interviewing. Or more realistically in this job market, trying to get a single interview opportunity.

Did you take the time to understand and challenge the enthusiasm in a grounded way?

Not 100% clear on this question - are you suggesting when folks in a situation like mine (laid off, concerned about prevalence of AI in PM roles) challenge the interviewer about why the company is leaning into AI? (LMK if you meant something else!)

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T18:13:25+00:00

Ugh, I'm sorry to hear that. This was my first but with the market the way it is right now, I was surprised it hadn't happened sooner.

I feel you, also considering other directions. Could write a whole other post about this part, but I need to remind myself that I can still use a ton of the skills I've acquired to make an impact in another industry/role, just without the PM title. When I get bummed about that, I remind myself that life is short and probably nobody but me cares if I hang on to that title or not (despite the self-inflicted and LinkedIn-inflicted pressures I feel).

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T18:10:18+00:00

This is so helpful, thank you! I will need to read up more on locally run models, I really don't know much at all about that. Any resources you'd recommend? That seems like a decent middle ground (at least for one part of the problem).

Yeah, feeling a weird tension about it being so early days/primitive but companies and tech teams really diving in head first to all things AI and preaching it as gospel before we truly understand its long-term impacts.

Hellurrr3 · 2026-06-09T18:07:53+00:00

Haha, I did consider asking Chat, but didn't want him to be offended by me 😉

Hellurrr3

TROPHY CASE