AI can Summarize the Feedback. It can’t Decide What Matters.

AI is brilliant at finding patterns.

Recently, I’ve been using Codex to build workflows that consolidate feedback from different sources. It can bring together customer conversations, requests, and notes quickly—and highlight themes that would otherwise take much longer to spot.

Useful? Absolutely.

But a summary is not a product decision.

One Integration Request. Many Different Needs.

For example, AI may tell us that customers are asking for an integration with an Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS).

At first glance, that sounds like one clear roadmap item: Build an IFMIS integration.

But when we looked closer, the picture changed.

A few customers were asking for procurement and accounting capabilities. Others needed support for budgeting and execution. Some were referring to entirely different IFMIS components. And in several cases, they needed the integration at different points in their business process.

What looked like one request was actually several different problems hiding behind the same phrase.

AI helped us spot the theme. But it could not tell us whether these customers needed the same integration, which component mattered most, or where the integration would create the most value.

Qwik Note: AI can recommend a next step, not just summarize feedback. But the recommendation is only as good as the data, context, and decision criteria behind it.

In this case, we needed to look beyond the headline request and understand the specific business process, IFMIS component, customer need, and strategic value before deciding what belonged on the roadmap.

The Pattern Is Only the Starting Point

This is where product management matters most. We need to understand who is asking, what outcome they are trying to achieve, where the friction sits in their process, and whether one solution can truly serve the need.

AI can organize the feedback. It can help us ask better questions faster. But it cannot replace the work of separating a broad request from the actual problems underneath it.

Qwik Takeaway

AI can tell you that customers are asking for the same thing. Product judgment helps you discover whether they actually are.