In 2025, artificial intelligence (AI) agents have evolved from experimental tools to essential assets for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). These autonomous systems can perform tasks such as customer service, financial management, and marketing, enabling SMBs to operate more efficiently and competitively.

Understanding AI AgentsAI agents are autonomous systems that perceive their environment, make decisions, and act without constant human oversight. Unlike traditional automation tools, AI agents can learn from data, adapt to new situations, and handle complex tasks across various business functions.(Tredence)

Key Benefits for SMBs

1. Enhanced Productivity: AI agents can operate 24/7, handling tasks like customer inquiries, appointment scheduling, and data entry, freeing up human employees for more strategic work.
2. Improved Customer Engagement: By analyzing customer data, AI agents can personalize interactions, recommend products, and respond promptly to inquiries, leading to higher customer satisfaction.
3. Cost Savings: Automating routine tasks reduces the need for extensive staffing, lowering operational costs while maintaining service quality.
4. Data-Driven Decision Making: AI agents can analyze large datasets to provide insights on market trends, customer behavior, and operational efficiency, aiding in informed decision-making.

Real-World Applications

• Financial Management: Companies like Affiniti have developed AI agents that act as virtual CFOs, managing expenses, forecasting budgets, and providing financial insights tailored to SMBs. (Business Insider)
• Marketing Automation: AI tools can create personalized marketing campaigns, optimize ad placements, and analyze campaign performance, helping SMBs reach their target audience effectively.
• Customer Service: AI-powered chatbots and voice agents can handle customer inquiries, process orders, and provide support around the clock, enhancing customer experience and loyalty.(wsj.com)

Getting Started with AI Agents

1. Identify Needs: Assess which areas of your business could benefit most from automation and data analysis.
2. Choose the Right Tools: Research AI solutions that cater to your specific industry and business size.(XenonStack)
3. Pilot Programs: Start with small-scale implementations to test effectiveness and gather feedback.
4. Train Your Team: Ensure your staff understands how to work alongside AI agents and interpret their outputs.
5. Monitor and Adjust: Continuously evaluate the performance of AI agents and make necessary adjustments to optimize results.

By embracing AI agents, small businesses can streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and make data-driven decisions, positioning themselves for sustainable growth in the evolving digital landscape.

Embarking on the journey as a product manager! It's an exciting role where you get to shape the future of products that impact people's lives. However, it can also feel overwhelming at times. You'll hear a lot about strategy, execution, roadmaps, and goals. Where do you even begin?

Drawing on insights from experienced product leaders like Ry Maehara, former CPO at Tinder and Director of Product at Meta, let's break down some fundamental concepts to help you thrive in your new role.

Strategy and Execution: Two Sides of the Same CoinOne of the most crucial things to understand is that strategy and execution are equally important and tightly linked. As Maehara puts it, "strategy matters it's one of the two sides of the coin strategy and execution". You might have the most innovative idea, but without solid execution – a high-quality product that works well for users – your strategy won't matter. Think of it like a fantastic restaurant concept with terrible service. The experience falls flat.
Conversely, you can execute flawlessly, but without a clear strategy, your efforts might lack direction and impact. You might be building features that don't align with the overall vision or address the most pressing user needs.

As a new PM, you need to start developing a "dynamic range". This means being able to think strategically about the big picture while also paying attention to the details – the pixels, the user interface, and the quality of the product. Don't think that as you become more senior, you only focus on high-level strategy. Great leaders care about the nitty-gritty because quality is paramount. "quality is your product's most important feature and if you don't ship quality first everything else that you deliver is going to get undermined".

Understanding the Building Blocks of Strategy: The Product Strategy StackWhen people talk about product strategy, it can feel like they're throwing around a lot of terms: mission, vision, goals, roadmap. Maehara's Product Strategy Stack helps to clarify these concepts and provides a framework for developing a coherent strategy:

• Company Mission: This is the overarching purpose of the company – what it wants to achieve in the world.
• Company Strategy: This is the rigorous plan the company has to achieve its mission.
• Product Strategy: This defines the role your product plays in achieving the overall company strategy. It's the glue connecting what your team is doing with the company's objectives.
• Product Roadmap: This outlines the high-level initiatives your product team will commit to delivering and the sequence in which they will be tackled. Think of it as your product's journey towards realizing the strategy.
• Product Goals: These are how you measure progress on your roadmap and towards your product strategy. They help you understand if you're on the right track.

Notice that the roadmap comes before goals in this stack. This is because goals are seen as the output of your strategy and roadmap – evidence that you're moving towards your desired destination.

The Power of Visuals: Don't Underestimate WireframesWhile it might seem unconventional, Maehara strongly advocates for including 15-20 wireframes in your product strategy documents. Why? Because product is inherently visual. Showing what the product will look like provides a concrete understanding and fosters alignment across teams. It's like having a blueprint for a house. These wireframes don't need to be pixel-perfect designs created solely by designers. As a PM, sketching out the core user flows and key screens can be incredibly valuable in communicating your vision.
Goal Setting: Thinking Beyond Just Key ResultsYou'll likely encounter goal-setting frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). Maehara also developed NCTs (Narratives, Commitments, and Tasks) as an alternative that explicitly incorporates the "why" behind your goals:

• Narrative: A short story (1-3 sentences) explaining the strategic importance of your goal.
• Commitments: Concrete deliverables (outputs or outcomes) your team commits to achieving to progress the narrative.
• Tasks: A flexible list of individual actions needed to achieve the commitments.

Remember, progress is measured by your commitments, not just the completion of tasks. This framework helps ensure that your goals are rooted in a clear strategic rationale.

​You and Your Growth: Understanding Your "Shape" as a PMAs you navigate your product management career, it's crucial to understand your strengths and areas for development. Maehara's "What Shape Are You as a PM?" framework identifies 12 key competencies across four areas:

• Product Execution
• Customer Insight
• Product Strategy
• Influencing People

The idea is that individuals are "spiky" – strong in some areas and less so in others. The goal is to become self-aware, understand your strengths, identify areas where you want to grow, and build well-rounded teams with complementary skills.
Frameworks: Tools, Not RulesRemember that frameworks like the Product Strategy Stack and "What Shape Are You as a PM?" are tools to enhance your thinking, not rigid rules. Don't be afraid to adapt them to fit your context. "Frameworks are a tool not a rule".
Final Thoughts for New PMsYour journey as a product manager is just beginning. Embrace the challenges, be curious, and never stop learning. Focus on understanding both the strategic and the executional aspects of your role, and always keep the user at the center of everything you do. By drawing on the wisdom of experienced leaders and utilizing frameworks as guides, you'll be well on your way to making a significant impact in the world of product.
One final piece of advice: start building your voice. Share your insights and learnings through articles or blog posts. This not only solidifies your understanding but also helps you stand out as you grow in your career. Good luck!

Source: https://hbr.org/2023/11/how-to-capitalize-on-generative-ai

Business leaders are struggling to understand how seriously they should take the latest phenomenon in the world of artificial intelligence: generative AI. On one hand, it has already displayed a breathtaking ability to create new content such as music, speech, text, images, and video and is currently used, for instance, to write software, to transcribe physicians’ interactions with their patients, and to allow people to converse with a customer-relationship-management system. On the other hand, it is far from perfect: It sometimes produces distorted or entirely fabricated output and can be oblivious to privacy and copyright concerns.

Is generative AI’s importance overblown? Are its risks worth the potential rewards? How can companies figure out where best to apply it? What should their first steps be? To provide guidance, this article draws on our research comprising studies of specific generative-AI projects and broad analyses of how the technology will affect tasks and jobs throughout the economy.

A large enterprise-software company that one of us (Erik) studied along with Lindsey Raymond and Danielle Li of MIT illustrates that there are ways to both reap the benefits of generative AI and contain its risks. The company’s customer-service agents, who assist people via online chats, faced a common challenge: New hires needed several months to get up to speed on how to answer technical questions and deal with confused customers, but many quit before they became proficient. The company saw generative AI as a solution. It engaged Cresta (which Erik has been advising), a generative AI start-up, to implement two kinds of artificial intelligence. The first was a large language model (LLM)—designed to understand and respond to humans in their own words—that “listened in” on the chats. It was fine-tuned to recognize phrases that led to good customer-service outcomes in various situations. But because of the risk of confabulations, or plausible-sounding but incorrect responses, the system also used a machine-learning technique called in-context learning, which drew answers from relevant user manuals and documents.
The LLM monitored the online chats for specific phrases, and when one of them occurred, it based its responses on the information in the in-context learning system. As an additional safeguard, it didn’t respond to queries directly. Instead human agents were free to apply their common sense in deciding whether to use or ignore the LLM’s suggestions.
After a seven-week pilot the system was rolled out to more than 1,500 agents. Within two months multiple benefits appeared. Both the average number of issues resolved per hour and the number of chats an agent could handle simultaneously increased by almost 15%; the average chat time decreased by nearly 10%; and an analysis of the chat logs showed that immediately after the new system was implemented, customer satisfaction improved. Expressions of frustration declined, for example, as did TYPING IN ALL CAPS.
It’s especially interesting that the least-skilled agents, who were also often the newest, benefited most. For example, resolutions per hour by agents who had been among the slowest 20% before introduction of the new system increased by 35%. (The resolution rate of the fastest 20% didn’t change.) The generative AI system was a fast-acting upskilling technology. It made available to all agents knowledge that had previously come only with experience or training. What’s more, agent turnover fell, especially among those with less than six months of experience—perhaps because people are more likely to stick around when they have powerful tools to help them do their jobs better.

The release of ChapGPT has a sparked a lot of interest in the field of Generative AI. This is especially how this technology drive even deeper business transformations

There is always the notion that to earn more, one has to provide good value to specific audience that is willing to pay for what is offered. This applies in both business and career contexts. How do you get this done? Is there a simple way to explain this which creates maximum traction?

The first thing to clarify is to stop focusing on Job titles and instead focus on Impact. For example, someone could be a VP in a company that is stagnant but in reality actually have more impact and rewards as an Individual Contributor (IC), in a company that is more dynamic and growing. 

There are three principles that can be useful to grow your career and have maximum impact - They are (1) increase Scope, (2) expand your network and (3) build a bigger team.  Lets break these down

1. Increase Scope - This naturally gives one more surface area to cover - Can be considered in the context of quantitatively and qualitatively. Impact will come from the quality of the work being done, not just how much work you do. In practical terms, it's good to see what is in demand and focus on how one could contribute there. It could mean learning a new skill or simply doing some intense research to become useful on specific topics. The main question; is the work you do providing sufficient impact and challenging?

2. Expand your network - This means in order to have impact, it's important to have partners that will help in this process. For example, if the area is new, getting a mentor who is an expert in that space could be one approach. Look at it from a value chain perspective, then see how to relate to different players in the ecosystem to surface new opportunities. A bigger network can provide help to grow in several ways.  Another example, if you are a small business or startup, getting more investor partners could help grow the business faster.

3. Grow your team - This depends on the role you play currently. If an IC, then maybe it's to build relationship with others that can help deliver on projects. A person that is a freelancer, can look to hire more sub contractors to offload specific tasks or to take on new complex work. Naturally a manager or business owner would hire more persons into the team to take on more new work and scopes.  Again, quality versus quantity is an important consideration for the team. What skill sets are required to help you grow? who can help you achieve specific milestones?

Ultimately, the goal here is to scale yourself in a way that ensures wellbeing and maximize impact. John Maxwell, states that for a business to grow the leader has to be growing too. If the leader is stagnant, the business will be the same. Therefore, growth is a mindset that applies in pretty much any areas of your life.  Alternatively, consider the Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP) approach to driving career growth decisions. 
​
What is your approach to career growth?

There is so much buzz nowadays about the concept of leadership. Everyone that has some position of authority seems to call themselves leaders. To burst the bubble, that is not what leadership really means. Yes, getting certain positions does open up the opportunity to lead. For example, if someone is the president of a country then being a good leader would definitely help them in that role. John Maxwell, does provide some very good insights on the topic and mentions that the position is merely  level one (of five levels) in the ladder to be a real leader. He also points out that the organization is always one level behind the leader, so if someone is always stuck at level one, the organization will struggle to achieve any meaningful results. This is usually followed by constant churn of people coming in and then leaving.

Leadership can be very complex in larger organizations but it really comes down to some basic principles to be an effective leader. Here are a few:

• Have a clear vision and goals
• Influence others to share the vision
• Enable others to achieve the vision
• Lead by example at all times

John Maxwell will say that leadership is all about influence as the end goal. The vision is very important and being able to communicate that will be the first step in the process. Being good at building strategy will play a key role in this first step. Bear in mind, leadership could come into play in various situations. For example, if a group of people are in danger, then the vision of the leader in that case is to get everyone to safety. 

Once, the vision (The concept of MTP is a great way to create vision statements) is fairly well understood, then it's time to sell it to others for them to join in on the mission of achieving that vision.  Good communication is critical which also goes into how the leader enables that the team for the vision.  Humility really comes into play as an important characteristics of a leader. One has to accept that the focus is on the vision and not yourself.  In the bible, the Jewish messiah is a great example of being selfless at all times. Most aspiring leaders fail at the art of humility as they always seems to like authority and the spotlight of credit and so forth.  It is very important to listen and enable within the context of the vision. Let the smart people share their part of how things could or should work. Of course others will praise you for achievements but have to avoid distracting your energy away from achieving even more. Never forget to share the accolades with the team that is helping to achieve the vision.

The final important point is that the leader has to set examples. Always demonstrate full belief in the vision and going out in front to fight for it. In ancient times, kings would lead their troops into battle. Not just hide in the palace and hope things work out.  The leader has to keep learning, get into the trenches and support the mission 100%. This could mean doing just about anything to help. Outsourcing is great to get help but you just cannot outsource the core of ensuring things get done.

Taking these principles and applying them to even more complex situations will work. For example, the CEO of a large multi-divisional corporation has to know how to organize the business to succeed without the need to babysit every single employee or manager. The CEO has to rely on important leaders within the team to do their part. Typically, for large companies, it make sense for the leader to be at what John Maxwell calls level 5 leadership. This is where the leader focuses on creating other leaders in the business or movement.

The world has needs to fix many issues, so there is no shortage on the need for great leaders that can take on challenging issues and work with their teams to find the best sustainable solutions. Let's be part of the solution and not the problem.

Hope this gave some good insights, feel free to share your perspective