The mechanics of building products have changed more in the last two years than in the previous ten. What used to take a large team and a long runway can now start with a small team and an afternoon. This briefing covers what actually changed, what didn't, and the practitioner framework that works whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500 innovation lab.
How is AI changing product design and development?
AI is collapsing the distance between idea and execution. Prototyping, drafting, and iteration that once took weeks can happen in hours. That shifts the bottleneck from production to judgment — knowing what to build and why. The teams that win treat AI as leverage on taste and decision-making, not a substitute for it.
Does AI replace designers and developers?
No — it changes the work rather than eliminating it. AI removes much of the mechanical effort and raises the premium on product judgment: problem framing, user understanding, and quality. The strongest practitioners use AI to move faster and explore more options while owning the decisions that matter.
This page is a high-level briefing. Rich's keynote and workshop versions include concrete examples and are tailored to the audience.
How do small teams compete?
AI lets a small, focused team punch far above its size by compressing the path from concept to working product. A startup can now prototype and ship at a pace that used to demand a much larger team — as long as it stays disciplined about what problem it's solving and for whom.
What does a modern product framework look like?
- Keep the fundamentals: a clear problem, real user insight, tight feedback loops.
- Use AI to accelerate each step — research, prototyping, iteration.
- Hold judgment constant; let speed-to-learn be the variable.
- Ship, measure, and refine faster than the competition can plan.
How Rich covers this on stage
Rich Perez spent 16 years building digital products at scale for some of the largest retailers in the world before leading banking innovation. He delivers this as a keynote or hands-on workshop — a practitioner framework teams can apply immediately, not a futurist's slide deck.