Nimisha Sharath, a product manager at Uber working in road safety, has witnessed firsthand how artificial intelligence has revolutionized her daily work routine, automating approximately 30% of her job responsibilities. The Seattle-based professional, who transitioned from data scientist at Microsoft to product management roles at Instacart and now Uber, describes AI adoption as not just beneficial but essential—particularly for immigrants on work visas who face unique employment pressures.
Sharath’s experience highlights the practical applications of AI tools in modern product management. AI-powered meeting assistants now automatically capture, summarize, and distribute notes from her four to five daily meetings, saving her an estimated 100 minutes per day. This automation eliminates the tedious post-meeting work of compiling notes and ensuring stakeholder alignment, allowing her to leave the office on time rather than staying late for administrative tasks.
Beyond meeting management, AI has dramatically accelerated Sharath’s research capabilities. She can now analyze research papers in minutes instead of hours, quickly assess available literature on specific solution areas, and conduct comprehensive SWOT analyses with greater speed and depth. This enhanced efficiency enables her to prepare strategy decks with more information and conviction than was possible just a few years ago.
Crucially, Sharath emphasizes that AI automation has freed her to focus on the irreplaceable human elements of product management: relationship building, stakeholder management, and judgment calls. As the “glue” connecting diverse teams—from operations to data science to design—she now has more time for the interpersonal work that creates organizational synergy. She notes that human judgment remains essential because even AI trained on global datasets reflects inherent biases and cannot fully represent all perspectives.
Sharath’s advice to professionals facing AI disruption is proactive: “Instead of waiting for AI to come and encroach on your job, become the person who uses AI to do your job better.” She advocates for embracing automation, learning to leverage these tools effectively, and positioning oneself as an AI educator within organizations—transforming potential job displacement into a new skill set and career opportunity.
Key Quotes
Knowledge about what AI is and how it can be misused does not feel like a choice at the moment. As a product manager, it’s important to learn about it — and as an immigrant, I feel it’s a necessity.
Nimisha Sharath explains why AI literacy has become essential for her professional survival, particularly given the precarious position of workers on employment visas who face deportation if they lose their jobs. This highlights how AI adoption pressures are especially acute for vulnerable worker populations.
AI gives me time to do the more human side of things, like relationship building and stakeholder management — and I think that’s a part of the job that can never really get automated.
Sharath describes how automation of routine tasks has paradoxically made her role more human-centric, allowing her to focus on interpersonal skills that remain uniquely valuable. This reflects a broader trend where AI handles administrative work while humans concentrate on strategic relationship management.
Instead of waiting for AI to come and encroach on your job, become the person who uses AI to do your job better. Sure, 30% of your job may get eliminated. That’s fine. Become the person who teaches other people how to use it.
Sharath offers pragmatic career advice for professionals facing AI disruption, advocating for proactive adoption rather than resistance. Her recommendation to become an AI educator within organizations represents a strategic response to automation that transforms potential job loss into a new value proposition.
Even if an AI tool is trained on the entire world’s data, that data available is still biased. It’s never going to be 100% representative of everybody’s thoughts and opinions. So, at the end of the day, you do need some sort of human intervention.
The Uber product manager articulates a fundamental limitation of AI systems that ensures continued human relevance in decision-making roles. This observation about inherent data bias underscores why judgment and contextual understanding remain critical human contributions that AI cannot fully replicate.
Our Take
Sharath’s account provides valuable ground-level insight into AI’s actual workplace impact, moving beyond abstract predictions to concrete productivity metrics. The 100 minutes of daily time savings she quantifies offers a tangible benchmark for organizations evaluating AI tool investments. Particularly noteworthy is her reframing of AI adoption as a career strategy rather than a threat—positioning AI literacy and evangelism as emerging professional competencies. Her immigrant perspective adds crucial nuance to AI workforce discussions, revealing how employment precarity intensifies the urgency of technological adaptation. The emphasis on AI freeing capacity for relationship-building and judgment suggests we’re entering an era where emotional intelligence and strategic thinking become even more valuable as routine cognitive tasks automate. Organizations should note that successful AI integration requires not just tool deployment but cultural shifts that empower employees to redirect saved time toward higher-value human work rather than simply increasing output expectations.
Why This Matters
This story illuminates a critical inflection point in how AI is reshaping white-collar knowledge work, particularly in tech product management roles. Sharath’s experience demonstrates that AI automation is not replacing entire jobs but fundamentally restructuring them, eliminating routine administrative tasks while amplifying the value of uniquely human capabilities like judgment, relationship-building, and cross-functional leadership.
For the broader workforce, especially immigrants on work visas who face heightened job security concerns, understanding and adopting AI tools has become a professional imperative rather than an optional skill. The 100 minutes of daily time savings Sharath experiences translates to roughly 8.5 hours weekly—essentially reclaiming a full workday for higher-value activities.
This shift has significant implications for corporate productivity and talent development. Organizations that successfully integrate AI tools while empowering employees to focus on strategic, interpersonal work will gain competitive advantages. Meanwhile, workers who proactively position themselves as AI-savvy leaders and educators within their organizations can transform potential displacement anxiety into career advancement opportunities. The story underscores that the future of work isn’t about humans versus AI, but rather humans augmented by AI—with the most successful professionals being those who master this collaboration.
Recommended Reading
For those interested in learning more about artificial intelligence, machine learning, and effective AI communication, here are some excellent resources:
Recommended Reading
Related Stories
- Tech Workers Are the Real Winners in the AI Talent War, With Pay Set to Soar by 2024
- Microsoft Pay Data Reveals Significant Salary Premiums for AI Workers
- The Impact of AI on Software Engineering Jobs and Market Outlook
- Google Requests Update to Immigration Rules to Hire Top AI Talent by 2024
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-product-manager-ai-use-at-work-2025-1