Product managers are both exhausted and energized in the AI boom. This is the contradiction that characterizes today’s technology, says Nikhil Singhal, former Meta vice president of products.
“It’s smile fatigue, folks, and I see it in my community,” he said on Sunday’s episode of “Lenny’s Podcast.”
On the other hand, AI is making the role of product manager more appealing by allowing tools like Claude to directly build and test ideas, simplifying some of the adjustment process. However, this turnaround also comes with pitfalls. The pace of change is so relentless that workers are struggling to keep up, Singhal said.
“I’ve never seen an industry as exhausted as it is right now,” Singhal said of product management. “Nothing remains the same,” and “Everyone is on guard.”
Singhal is not alone in describing this fatigue in the tech industry.
Siddhant Khare, an ONA software engineer, said in a blog post in February that while AI tools have increased productivity, they have also made him more attrition than ever before.
Django co-creator Simon Willison said juggling AI agents was “mentally exhausting” and could “wipe them out” before noon, while veteran engineer Steve Yegg warned of a “vampire effect” that encourages workers to overextend themselves.
Even researchers are warning of this trend, with a Harvard Business Review study published last month finding that some workers surveyed were experiencing mental fatigue or “AI brain flies” due to excessive use of AI.
Singhal told Lenny’s Podcast that AI tools are evolving so quickly that skills can become obsolete within months, creating a persistent sense of anxiety even among top performers in certain roles.
“People are feeling more stressed out because even if they’re doing well, they’re worried that they’re not keeping up or that the industry is changing and that they’re essentially going to end up on the street somewhere down the road,” he said.
Singhal predicts that over the next 12 to 24 months there will be “massive layoffs and then mass rehiring of staff”, with new roles focused on AI-first skills.
“If you don’t like making things, you’re in trouble,” he says.
“The pace is relentless,” Singhal said. “There’s nothing I can say about that.”