Supra Insider

#49: How Asana builds AI products | Rodrigo Davies (Director of Product @ Asana)

Mar 17, 2025

Rodrigo Davies, Director of Product at Asana, shares his insights on leading AI strategy at the company, leveraging his experience as a founding member of Supra. He discusses how Asana integrates AI to boost productivity, ensuring it adds real value rather than just hype. The conversation covers the challenges of AI-driven tools and the importance of balancing innovation with user trust. Rodrigo also highlights the evolving role of AI in product development, emphasizing hands-on tinkering and collaboration to foster effective solutions.

01:03:24

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Episode guests

Rodrigo Davies

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Asana's AI strategy hinges on educating internal teams to foster a culture of AI experimentation and collaboration across functions.

The integration of AI into work management at Asana strikes a balance between innovation and meeting enterprise needs to deliver real value.

Prototyping and hands-on experimentation in the product development process enable teams to quickly validate ideas and build user trust in AI capabilities.

Deep dives

Human Accountability in AI Implementation

AI technologies are designed with the principle of 'human in the loop' to ensure accountability for decisions made through automation. Although AI can significantly enhance efficiency through automation, it cannot operate completely independently; a human must remain responsible for critical outcomes. This aspect becomes particularly salient in enterprise scenarios where the risk of errors is considerable. Companies prefer AI solutions that promote human oversight, recognizing that even a small margin of error can have severe repercussions.

Intro

2min

AI Integration at Asana: Transforming Productivity

30min

Navigating the Challenges of AI-Driven Coding Tools

4min

Harnessing Cross-App AI for Enhanced Product Development

3min

Navigating Interoperability Challenges in Tech Products

2min

Exploring AI Agency and the Future of Proactive Assistance

2min

AI Integration in Training and Product Development

21min

Welcome to another episode of Supra Insider. This time, Marc and Ben sat down with Rodrigo Davies, the product leader shaping Asana’s AI strategy. Rodrigo shares his journey leading AI adoption at Asana, from educating internal teams to building a culture of AI experimentation.

We explore how Asana integrates AI into work management, balances AI innovation with enterprise needs, and develops features that deliver real value—not just hype. Rodrigo also talks about how AI is changing the product development process, the importance of hands-on tinkering, and why AI needs to earn trust before it can take over critical workflows.

Whether you're a PM, designer, or engineer working on AI features—or just curious about how a large tech company approaches AI—this episode is packed with insights.

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In this episode, we covered the following topics:

* How Asana is driving AI adoption across teams

* Building a culture of AI tinkering inside a company

* Balancing AI innovation with enterprise customer needs

* How AI is transforming the product development process

* Why human oversight is still essential in AI-powered workflows

* The importance of prototyping AI features early and often

* What PMs need to know about AI today to stay ahead

* And much more!

If you’d like to watch the video of our conversation, you can catch that on YouTube:

Links:

* Rodrigo Davies: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigodavies/