The AI Product Manager Playbook: Skills, Hiring, and Career Growth

Want to be hired as an AI Product Manager? This might be the most valuable 40 minutes you spend this week!

Join Shobhit from Intentional Product Manager as he sits down with Mahesh Yadav, an AI Product Manager at Google with 17+ years of experience in AI, including roles at Amazon and Meta. Mahesh has worked at the forefront of AI innovation, from building intelligent systems at top tech companies to shaping the future of AI. Mahesh also runs an amazing course teaching product managers about how to use AI responsibly. 

This episode covers:

• How to position yourself so companies come looking for you
• The fundamentals of AI agents and how they power real-world products
• A deep dive into what hiring managers are looking for in AI PMs
• The biggest challenges in AI product development and how to solve them
• How to build responsible AI products while managing risk and compliance
• The technical skills that will set you apart as an AI PM
• How AI is reshaping product management—and what you must do to stay relevant

Episode Breakdown

00:00 – Introduction to the Podcast  

00:39 – Meet Mahesh Yadav: AI Specialist at Google – Experience at Google, Amazon, and Meta  

03:06 – Mahesh’s career journey in AI: How he navigated roles at top tech companies  

06:09 – How to get companies to come looking for you: Staying ahead of AI trends and making yourself the talent they seek  

07:40 – AI Agents 101: What they are, how they work, and how they “think”  

09:38 – How to get hired as an AI PM: What hiring managers actually look for  

14:24 – The roadmap to becoming a top AI PM: Key experiences, interview strategies, and storytelling  

19:07 – Understanding evaluations  

20:34 – When AI goes wrong: The hilarious (and frustrating) side of AI failures  

21:36 – Challenges in shipping AI products: Moving from subjective to objective evaluation  

22:30 – The AI Act: What PMs need to know about compliance and accountability  

23:12 – Building responsible AI: Avoiding risks, clear communication, and PMs as the last line of defense  

26:35 – The accountability checklist: What every AI PM must showcase in interviews  

28:32 – How AI is reshaping product management: More technical, more hands-on, more customer trust  

31:28 – The must-have technical skills for AI PMs: System diagrams, model recommendations, and prompt engineering  

33:29 – What’s possible with AI: Selling your ideas to engineers and staying ahead of the competition  

34:52 – Adoption challenges and real-world AI product examples  

36:38 – AI’s impact on major tech companies: Why understanding AI is now non-negotiable  

39:17 – Conclusion & final takeaways  

Connect with Shobhit Chugh on LinkedIn and find out more about Intentional Product Manager here. 

Connect with Mahesh on LinkedIn and find out more about his course on responsible AI. 

www.intentionalproductmanager.com