Product Management (2026)

1. Marty Cagan
2. Lenny Rachitsky
3. Aakash Gupta
4. Marily Nika
5. Claire Vo
6. Andrej Karpathy
7. Melissa Perri
8. Shreyas Doshi
9. Teresa Torres
10. Dan Shipper airfocus.com

Here are 10 real individual leaders and experts whose insights, frameworks, and writing provide essential guidance for product managers navigating the AI landscape, listed in a general order of industry prominence and influence:

1. Andrew Ng

2. Lenny Rachitsky

3. Shreyas Doshi

4. Cassie Kozyrkov

5. Ethan Mollick

6. Allie K. Miller

7. John Cutler

8. Jackie Bavaro

9. Shubham Saboo

10. Diana Kimball Berlin

Here are the top 10 individual figures and thought leaders a product manager new to AI should follow, ranked from most to least influential based on their impact on AI product strategy, education, and community frameworks:

1. Andrew Ng – Founder of DeepLearning.AI and Coursera, widely regarded as the leading educator and visionary defining the AI product ecosystem and agentic workflows.
2. Cassie Kozyrkov – Former Chief Decision Scientist at Google and CEO of Data Scientific, specializing in decision intelligence, risk management, and statistical rigor for AI products.
3. Marily Nika – AI Product Lead and educator who runs specialized AI product management cohorts and co-authored guides like The AI-Powered Product Manager.
4. Peter Yang – Product leader at Roblox and creator of popular deep-dives and tutorials on AI-native product workflows and execution.
5. Lenny Rachitsky – Creator of Lenny's Newsletter and host of top tech podcasts, frequently curating playbook series on AI-native product management and adoption.
6. Andrej Karpathy – Former head of AI at Tesla and OpenAI co-founder, essential for PMs who want to understand foundational model capabilities and developer-side constraints through elite technical education.
7. Allie K. Miller – Prominent AI strategist, advisor, and high-signal public educator focusing on practical business adoption and generative AI implementation.
8. Melissa Perri – Author of Escaping the Build Trap and PM educator who focuses heavily on product operations, strategy, and avoiding traditional product traps in the age of AI.
9. Shubham Saboo – Senior AI Product Manager and prominent voice sharing tactical breakdowns on open-source LLMs, AI agents, and applied product architecture.
10. Diego Granados – Google AI product lead and co-author of comprehensive AI product frameworks and playbooks for modern practitioners.

Would you like recommendations on the best newsletters, podcasts, or specific books published by these leaders to jumpstart your learning?

Aakash Gupta
Lenny Rachitsky
Marty Cagan
Dan Shipper
Paweł Huryn
Claire Vo
Logan Kilpatrick
Peter Yang
Brian Balfour
Nancy Li

Top 10 most influential individual people a product manager new to AI should follow (ranked):

1. Andrew Ng – Founder of DeepLearning.AI, co-founder of Coursera, and one of the most trusted voices making AI accessible to business leaders.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026Top 10 AI influencers to follow on LinkedIn in 2026

2. Fei-Fei Li – Stanford professor and co-director of the Human-Centered AI Institute, known for pioneering ImageNet and advocating responsible AI.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026Top 10 AI influencers to follow on LinkedIn in 2026

3. Demis Hassabis – CEO and co-founder of DeepMind, leading breakthroughs in reinforcement learning and AI applied to science.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026Top 10 AI influencers to follow on LinkedIn in 2026

4. Yann LeCun – Chief AI Scientist at Meta and Turing Award winner, recognized for foundational work in deep learning.Top 10 AI influencers to follow on LinkedIn in 2026

5. Cassie Kozyrkov – Former Chief Decision Scientist at Google, influential in guiding enterprises on practical AI adoption and decision-making.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026Top 10 AI influencers to follow on LinkedIn in 2026

6. Ethan Mollick – Wharton professor, widely followed for his research and practical insights on how AI transforms business and management.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026Top 10 AI influencers to follow on LinkedIn in 2026

7. Allie K. Miller – Former Global Head of Machine Learning Business Development at AWS, now a leading voice on enterprise AI adoption.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026Top 10 AI influencers to follow on LinkedIn in 2026

8. Yoshua Bengio – Turing Award winner and professor at Université de Montréal, known for his work on deep learning and responsible AI.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026

9. Jeremy Howard – Co-founder of fast.ai, democratizing AI education and making deep learning accessible to non-experts.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026

10. Melanie Mitchell – Professor at Portland State University, author of Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans, offering balanced perspectives on AI development.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026

Why these matter for product managers new to AI

• Andrew Ng, Fei-Fei Li, Demis Hassabis, Yann LeCun, Yoshua Bengio → Provide technical depth and vision for where AI is heading.

• Cassie Kozyrkov, Ethan Mollick, Allie K. Miller → Translate AI into business and product management contexts, making them especially relevant for PMs.

• Jeremy Howard, Melanie Mitchell → Offer accessible education and critical perspectives, helping PMs avoid hype and focus on responsible adoption.

Key takeaway

If you’re new to AI in product management, start with Andrew Ng, Cassie Kozyrkov, and Ethan Mollick for practical, product-relevant insights, then expand to the others for technical depth and broader context. This mix ensures you learn both how AI works and how to apply it responsibly in product strategy.