AI Misdirects Product Teams to Optimize Low-Leverage Tasks, Says Software Crafting Article
Product teams mistake artifact production for real progress.
Emmanuel Valverde Ramos argues that AI is making it cheap to produce product artifacts—user stories, reports, roadmaps, and dashboards—but many teams mistake that for progress. In reality, product work is judgment under uncertainty: deciding what problem matters, why, with what ROI, and in what order. Automating low-leverage tasks first reveals a team's flawed understanding of their job. The danger isn't poor automation but poor product judgment.
The core failure is economic and conceptual. Teams using AI to organize backlogs, generate acceptance criteria, and polish roadmaps are optimizing proxies rather than real decisions. Product work was never mainly about artifact production; it's about deciding what deserves to exist. The most dangerous thing AI does is make teams feel productive while they optimize the least important parts of product work.
- AI cheapens production of user stories, reports, roadmaps — low-leverage artifacts.
- Product work is judgment under uncertainty, not backlog administration.
- Teams reveal flawed priorities by automating low-leverage tasks first.
Why It Matters
Teams risk wasting resources on busywork instead of strategic product decisions.