A
Avadhoot Kulkarni
Guest
My journey didn’t stop there, but it continued. During this part, I began to set aside my skepticism.
After those first few moments of surprise, a solid research summary here, a polished invitation there, I didn’t jump into the AI bandwagon overnight.
There was no dramatic epiphany. Just a quiet shift from “this isn’t useful” to “maybe I should try it… just to see.”
I slowly started using it to help me:
I transitioned slowly but steadily, from skeptic to curious, doubter to inquirer, dismisser to genuinely interested.
More importantly, these experiments helped me think better.
That’s when I realized: ChatGPT wasn’t replacing my thinking, it was accelerating it. Now I have a buddy available 24x7 who is ready to brainstorm with me at my will.
It became part of my toolkit, like a calculator for language. A fast-thinking partner who didn’t get tired or defensive. A junior who understands my input and can provide various ideas and suggestions around my intentions.
It didn’t always get things right. But, it always got me closer to what I needed… faster.
More importantly, I began noticing a cultural shift around me. People across teams and industries were using AI to get unstuck. Product managers, marketers, support folks and, even our finance teams. Quietly, casually and confidently.
It wasn’t hype anymore. It was the adoption.
And as someone who had once rolled his eyes at the very idea of ‘“prompting,’” I had to admit: “Okay… this is real. It’s not a fad. It’s not magic. But it’s a damn useful tool.”
Once I crossed that invisible line from acceptance to curiosity, I didn’t expect the next part to be this hard.
I wasn’t looking for hype. I was looking for help. But the more I searched for ways to use AI meaningfully, the more I ran into a wall of buzzwords, bloated claims and unrealistic promises.
Everyone was promising 100x productivity. Everyone was automating everything. Everyone was… suspiciously perfect.
And here I was, just trying to figure out how to save an hour or two in my work week.
I wasn’t chasing “AI transformation.” I wanted to know: Can it help me delegate or finish faster some of my mundane work, to free me to do more strategic and impactful work that I enjoy?
I began by:
Every small win gave me more confidence. Every time it saved me 10 minutes, it earned a little more trust.
But just as I started feeling comfortable, AI started evolving faster than I could catch up.
Suddenly, it wasn’t just “chat,” it was agents, workflows, model context protocol, tool integration and plugins.
The possibilities expanded dramatically, and so did my concerns.
Because alongside the excitement, there were risks I couldn’t ignore:
And then the headlines came. Cases like Samsung’s confidential code leak through ChatGPT made it painfully real. Even though I wanted to experiment more, it just felt wrong to use these tools with any internal or sensitive data and not just because company policy said so, but because my instincts did.
That’s when Progress made a bold and timely move.
We didn’t just update our policy; we enabled our people. A curated set of AI tools was approved for corporate use, with guardrails in place. More importantly, we were encouraged to experiment, learn and innovate responsibly. AI wasn’t something you had to sneak into your workflow anymore, it was something we were building muscle around as a team.
That changed everything.
From cautious tinkering on my personal time, I shifted into confident, structured experimentation. I started building small personal workflows, sharing learnings and even mentoring teammates on where AI could and shouldn’t be used.
It became a sandbox. It was now safe, supported and suddenly full of possibility.
The true turning point wasn’t just when I started using AI tools. It was when I started building with them.
One evening, after another round of product requirement discussions and repetitive formatting cycles, I paused and thought: “What if AI could help us write better PRDs. Not just faster, but smarter?”
So, I wrote a prompt. A structured, thoughtful prompt, designed specifically for product managers. You feed it the context as raw notes, rough thoughts, even scribbles from a whiteboard and it gives back a clean, well-organized draft of a PRD.
Not just a template. A living document that:
It was magic. Not because AI did everything but because it did the grunt work of formatting what a product manager knew for better communication. It was the perfect combination of the skills and knowledge of product managers with the strength of Generative AI to improve communication and at the same time, giving product managers back precious time and cross-functional teams the most desired thing, clarity.
It quickly became a go-to tool within the team. Consistency improved. Conversations got sharper. Everyone, from designers to engineers, marketers to business leaders started getting better context and alignment, earlier in the cycle.
But for me, this was just the popping of the champagne bottle. One small tool. One prompt. One workflow. And yet, it sparked a realization: There are dozens of these opportunities. Hundreds. Tiny pain points waiting to be solved. Moments we could reclaim. Work that could be elevated.
We’re no longer thinking alone. We’re the superheroes with our own sidekicks. One that’s always ready, always curious and never tired of brainstorming.
Today, I’m not just an AI user. I’m an AI enthusiast, an AI product leader and a proud member of Progress’s AI thought leadership community. I’m helping lead the product management function for one of our AI products. I’ve partnered with our internal AI training team to co-create a program that shows fellow product managers how AI can improve their lives. It can elevate the “what” and “why” behind their work, not just automate the “how.”
What began as skepticism has evolved into advocacy. And what felt like a fad has turned into a future I want to help shape, responsibly, thoughtfully, enthusiastically and ethically.
This blog isn’t a conclusion, it’s a checkpoint. A story I hope others relate to the curiosity, the hesitation, the struggle to separate value from noise and eventually, the excitement of building something better.
AI won’t replace us. But it will reshape us, into faster thinkers, sharper communicators and more strategic collaborators. And if we use it right, it’ll free us to focus on the things that truly matter and we truly enjoy doing:
Because in this new era, the best ideas won’t come from AI. They’ll come from humans augmented by AI.
Let’s build that future. Together.
Continue reading...
Acceptance: From Toy to Tool
After those first few moments of surprise, a solid research summary here, a polished invitation there, I didn’t jump into the AI bandwagon overnight.
There was no dramatic epiphany. Just a quiet shift from “this isn’t useful” to “maybe I should try it… just to see.”
I slowly started using it to help me:
- Research by summarizing documents
- Write my LinkedIn post and create images for the same
- Review and improve my LinkedIn profile
I transitioned slowly but steadily, from skeptic to curious, doubter to inquirer, dismisser to genuinely interested.
More importantly, these experiments helped me think better.
That’s when I realized: ChatGPT wasn’t replacing my thinking, it was accelerating it. Now I have a buddy available 24x7 who is ready to brainstorm with me at my will.
It became part of my toolkit, like a calculator for language. A fast-thinking partner who didn’t get tired or defensive. A junior who understands my input and can provide various ideas and suggestions around my intentions.
It didn’t always get things right. But, it always got me closer to what I needed… faster.
More importantly, I began noticing a cultural shift around me. People across teams and industries were using AI to get unstuck. Product managers, marketers, support folks and, even our finance teams. Quietly, casually and confidently.
It wasn’t hype anymore. It was the adoption.
And as someone who had once rolled his eyes at the very idea of ‘“prompting,’” I had to admit: “Okay… this is real. It’s not a fad. It’s not magic. But it’s a damn useful tool.”
Learning and Experimentation: Searching for Signal in the Noise
Once I crossed that invisible line from acceptance to curiosity, I didn’t expect the next part to be this hard.
I wasn’t looking for hype. I was looking for help. But the more I searched for ways to use AI meaningfully, the more I ran into a wall of buzzwords, bloated claims and unrealistic promises.
Everyone was promising 100x productivity. Everyone was automating everything. Everyone was… suspiciously perfect.
And here I was, just trying to figure out how to save an hour or two in my work week.
I wasn’t chasing “AI transformation.” I wanted to know: Can it help me delegate or finish faster some of my mundane work, to free me to do more strategic and impactful work that I enjoy?
I began by:
- Summarizing blogs
- Drafting outlines
- Converting technical updates into readable notes
- Summarizing meeting notes
- Reviewing AI-detected action items
- Doing deep competitive research
- Brainstorming/introspecting my writing style, my thinking style
Every small win gave me more confidence. Every time it saved me 10 minutes, it earned a little more trust.
But just as I started feeling comfortable, AI started evolving faster than I could catch up.
Suddenly, it wasn’t just “chat,” it was agents, workflows, model context protocol, tool integration and plugins.
The possibilities expanded dramatically, and so did my concerns.
Because alongside the excitement, there were risks I couldn’t ignore:
- Where is my data going?
- Who owns the inputs or the outputs?
- What happens when corporate or customer data enters this black box?
And then the headlines came. Cases like Samsung’s confidential code leak through ChatGPT made it painfully real. Even though I wanted to experiment more, it just felt wrong to use these tools with any internal or sensitive data and not just because company policy said so, but because my instincts did.
That’s when Progress made a bold and timely move.
We didn’t just update our policy; we enabled our people. A curated set of AI tools was approved for corporate use, with guardrails in place. More importantly, we were encouraged to experiment, learn and innovate responsibly. AI wasn’t something you had to sneak into your workflow anymore, it was something we were building muscle around as a team.
That changed everything.
From cautious tinkering on my personal time, I shifted into confident, structured experimentation. I started building small personal workflows, sharing learnings and even mentoring teammates on where AI could and shouldn’t be used.
It became a sandbox. It was now safe, supported and suddenly full of possibility.
Integration and Advocacy: From Use to Impact
The true turning point wasn’t just when I started using AI tools. It was when I started building with them.
One evening, after another round of product requirement discussions and repetitive formatting cycles, I paused and thought: “What if AI could help us write better PRDs. Not just faster, but smarter?”
So, I wrote a prompt. A structured, thoughtful prompt, designed specifically for product managers. You feed it the context as raw notes, rough thoughts, even scribbles from a whiteboard and it gives back a clean, well-organized draft of a PRD.
Not just a template. A living document that:
- Defines the market problem we’re solving
- Identifies impacted personas
- Envisions what success looks like for the customer
- Aligns on why the business should invest
- Outlines acceptance criteria, assumptions
- Suggest a few options for the title which is clear in terms of value but also motivating for the teams and more
It was magic. Not because AI did everything but because it did the grunt work of formatting what a product manager knew for better communication. It was the perfect combination of the skills and knowledge of product managers with the strength of Generative AI to improve communication and at the same time, giving product managers back precious time and cross-functional teams the most desired thing, clarity.
It quickly became a go-to tool within the team. Consistency improved. Conversations got sharper. Everyone, from designers to engineers, marketers to business leaders started getting better context and alignment, earlier in the cycle.
But for me, this was just the popping of the champagne bottle. One small tool. One prompt. One workflow. And yet, it sparked a realization: There are dozens of these opportunities. Hundreds. Tiny pain points waiting to be solved. Moments we could reclaim. Work that could be elevated.
We’re no longer thinking alone. We’re the superheroes with our own sidekicks. One that’s always ready, always curious and never tired of brainstorming.
Today, I’m not just an AI user. I’m an AI enthusiast, an AI product leader and a proud member of Progress’s AI thought leadership community. I’m helping lead the product management function for one of our AI products. I’ve partnered with our internal AI training team to co-create a program that shows fellow product managers how AI can improve their lives. It can elevate the “what” and “why” behind their work, not just automate the “how.”
What began as skepticism has evolved into advocacy. And what felt like a fad has turned into a future I want to help shape, responsibly, thoughtfully, enthusiastically and ethically.
The Journey Ahead
This blog isn’t a conclusion, it’s a checkpoint. A story I hope others relate to the curiosity, the hesitation, the struggle to separate value from noise and eventually, the excitement of building something better.
AI won’t replace us. But it will reshape us, into faster thinkers, sharper communicators and more strategic collaborators. And if we use it right, it’ll free us to focus on the things that truly matter and we truly enjoy doing:
- Why we’re building what we’re building
- Who we’re solving it for and…
- How can we do it even better
Because in this new era, the best ideas won’t come from AI. They’ll come from humans augmented by AI.
Let’s build that future. Together.
Continue reading...