I’ve just wrapped up my little ritual of trawling through industry reports, pulling research data, and mapping out what’s actually happening in Product Management heading into 2026.
I went through multiple industry reports, analysed my own newsletter and YouTube data to see what’s resonating. Even pulled some Reddit discussions from the PM community.
Here goes, *holds breath, flicks hair…
The market’s normalised (but different)
We’ve stabilised back to pre-COVID levels, but the conditions have obviously changed significantly. There are actually more PMs globally now than in 2019, about 2.5 million on LinkedIn. The ~41,000 open roles right now suggest sustainable growth, not the chaos of recent years.
About 8-10% of those roles are AI product management positions. Over a 1/4 of the overall roles are in the US, so if you’re elsewhere, you’re competing for the rest of that pie.
Profit over growth is driving everything
The shift to profitability is the biggest trend I’m seeing. This started when interest rates spiked in 2022-2023, making it impossible for companies to survive on funding alone. Even though rates have started falling, companies haven’t shifted back. The focus on profitability has stuck.
This is driving more top-down control, less team empowerment, and a worrying increase in output-focused metrics.63-79% of CPOs are reporting directly on revenue metrics to the board. The second most common metric? Number of roadmap items completed. That output thinking is creeping back in, and it’s concerning.
There’s a correlation in the data, too. Companies reporting that senior leadership is the primary influence on product strategy are also the ones becoming more delivery-focused. When there’s more pressure on the business to drive profits, strategies become more constrained. The spotlight gets narrower.
AI is normal but challenging
Nearly half of PMs use AI daily now. It’s saving 1-2 hours per day on individual productivity. But companies are struggling to get ROI from AI features.
The pattern I’m seeing with clients is that you can build something in four days that looks amazing, then it takes four months to actually commercialise it properly. The evals, the fine-tuning, the accuracy work, the integration challenges. There’s this long tail where it feels like nothing’s happening.
We’ll see a shift away from “AI for AI’s sake” to being much more strategic about where we use it.
The other thing happening is that AI is getting commoditised already. Every other SaaS company has slapped “AI-powered” on their landing page. It’s becoming table stakes, not a differentiator. The anti-trend is people getting properly tired of AI that doesn’t solve real problems, it just adds complexity.
And there’s a real danger here too. If AI just means everything looks the same, if everyone can build the same thing with the same tools, that’s not your competitive advantage anymore.
This is why design quality and taste matter more now. Companies need to think harder about what actually differentiates them. I think we’ll see the overall look and feel of the internet change from those with a real design sensibility and those without.
Roles are blurring, we’re experimenting
LinkedIn replaced their APM programme with “Full-Stack Builders” who learn product, design, and engineering. Linear’s got PMs and designers pushing code directly.
This is creating some tension. In Reddit discussions, PMs are reporting role boundary issues. People stepping into each other’s territory, unclear ownership, and frustration about who does what. Some of this is people worried about job security with AI. Some of it’s just the natural friction that comes when the tools enable us to do things we couldn’t do before.
Collaboration skills are becoming more critical because of this. If you can’t work in partnership with your design and engineering peers, if you view someone prototyping as them stealing your job rather than us both bringing valuable skills to the table, you’re going to struggle. The reality is, we all bring different expertise. The tools enabling overlap don’t change that.
Nobody knows what the future team composition looks like yet. We’re in experimentation mode.
What will matter for Product Managers in 2026?
Strategy will be the backbone of everything. Not a fluffy strategy, but the ability to take high-level business goals and break them down into measurable product outcomes that have tangible impact.
Business acumen matters more than ever. Can you explain how your company makes money? Do you understand the P&L? Can you mu
Influence is critical. With more top-down control, you need to be able to shape that direction, not just accept it. The data shows 38% of failed investments came from lack of clear company strategy, up from 25% last year. There’s opportunity there if you can help avoid that.
The talent gap is real. Companies are hiring more senior people because they need strategic thinkers who can contextualise value, not just manage backlogs. Some of my clients are hiring heads of product for what used to be senior PM roles.
My take
2026 looks like 2025 with better AI tools but harder business conditions. The PMs who’ll thrive are the ones who can think strategically, speak the language of business, and influence upward while the pressure’s coming down.
Less focus on being “empowered” in theory, more focus on delivering measurable impact that connects to revenue.
Do you agree? Disagree? What are you doubling down on?
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