How AI Is Disrupting Product and Digital Roles
- Jessica de Meillon
- Sep 4
- 6 min read
More than a quarter of all computer programming jobs have vanished in the past two years. There are fewer programmers in the United States than at any point since 1980. The question keeping product managers, engineers, and digital professionals awake at night: Will my job exist in five years?
Jenna Flateman Posner has been tracking this crisis in real-time. As Founder and CEO
of Chief Digital Agency and Co-Founder of the Retail AI Council, she's watching entire departments reshape—or disappear—as AI capabilities accelerate beyond what most organizations expected.
The data is stark. Employment for recent graduates in computer science and math jobs has declined by 8% since 2022. Postings for software development roles on Indeed fell 71% between February 2022 and August 2025. As one Brookings Institution researcher noted, "the unemployment jump for programming really does look at least partly like an early, visible labor market effect of AI."
The Correlation Everyone's Talking About
The timeline tells the story. ChatGPT launched in late 2022. Programming job losses accelerated immediately after. Companies discovered they could accomplish the same work with dramatically fewer people. As industry observers note, "companies, particularly early-stage companies that might have hired three to five people, now they're hiring one or two people and expecting them to get more done."
This isn't theoretical disruption—it's measurable workforce reduction happening right now. AI already writes up to 30% of Microsoft's code. Three-quarters of developers use AI assistants. Computer programming now ranks among the 10 hardest-hit occupations of 420-plus jobs tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Beyond Coding: The Broader Transformation
Posner's analysis goes far deeper than programming job losses. Her work with retail and technology companies reveals how AI is transforming the entire scope of work across product and digital teams—from how code is written to how features are tested, launched, and iterated.
"I think every CDO in any organization, a big part of the responsibility is understanding what's coming. And the more forward-looking and innovative you can be the better," Posner explained in a recent interview. This forward-thinking approach has positioned her to identify patterns that many organizations are just beginning to recognize.
The challenge involves understanding the shifting skill sets and core competencies required of tomorrow's digital and product teams. Traditional roles like engineering and coding aren't just evolving—in many cases, they're disappearing entirely.
The New Skill Hierarchy
Posner has identified that successful professionals are those who understand how to work alongside AI rather than compete with it. Her experience with "agentic AI"—technology that can compile data and make decisions on behalf of teams—shows how the most valuable roles now require human-AI collaboration skills.
"In the future, there's not going to be a browser. There's not going to be a search engine. AI is going to fundamentally change how we shop," she predicted. This vision has profound implications for product and digital professionals. If traditional interfaces disappear, the skills needed to build and optimize them become obsolete, while expertise in AI-driven experiences becomes critical.
Her work with the Retail AI Council has revealed practical applications. "A top marketing use case for AI is making sense of aggregate data and putting it to work. AI tools can parse through fragmented data across multiple marketing channels and across your tech stack." This creates opportunities for professionals who understand both technical capabilities and business applications—but threatens those who rely solely on traditional analytics methods.
The Personalization Economy
One area where Posner sees immediate transformation is AI-driven personalization. She envisions systems that can say, "I know customer 1234, and I've been aggregating data on them over the course of their lifecycle with the brand. This is the future of marketing, where AI steps in to provide recommendations for that customer, which feel like they're coming from a trusted human who knows their likes and dislikes."
This level of personalization requires professionals who can bridge technical AI capabilities with customer psychology—exactly the kind of hybrid role that survives and thrives in the transformed landscape.
Research supports her urgency around personalization. Seventy-five percent of shoppers will abandon brand loyalty in favor of more personalized experiences elsewhere. Organizations that can deliver AI-powered, human-feeling personalization at scale will capture market share from those stuck with traditional "batch-and-blast" communications.
First Movers vs. Everyone Else
"The ones who are first, are the ones who are going to win," Posner states emphatically about AI adoption. This principle applies equally to individual career development and organizational strategy.
Recent industry analysis confirms her timeline. Research suggests that by 2027, 50% of software engineering organizations will utilize software engineering intelligence platforms to measure and increase developer productivity—a massive increase from just 5% in 2024.
The professionals who wait for this transformation to "settle down" may find themselves permanently displaced. The window for developing AI-complementary skills is narrowing rapidly as organizations discover they can operate with smaller teams augmented by AI capabilities.
From Rugby Field to AI Authority
Posner's unique perspective comes from her journey through multiple technology disruptions. After her seven-year career with USA Rugby, she transitioned into retail tech, eventually serving as Chief Digital Officer at Solo Brands and SNIPES. Her 20+ years of experience includes working with early-stage businesses that exited to companies like GrubHub, Fiserv, and BazaarVoice.
This gives her rare insight into how technology transitions actually play out in real organizations—and why so many fail to adapt quickly enough. Through Chief Digital Agency, she now works directly with retailers and technology vendors, bridging what she sees as a fundamental disconnect between how technology is built and how organizations actually implement it.
As Co-Founder and Vice Chair of the Retail AI Council, she's helping shape industry-wide understanding of AI's practical implications, cutting through hype to focus on what actually drives business results.
The Data Advantage
Why is AI disrupting programming jobs faster than other professions? Posner understands the underlying mechanics. As industry analysis reveals, "AI is more likely to replace coders than drivers not because coding is easier, but because the data is easier to come by."
GitHub hosts over 420 million repositories, including at least 28 million public ones—millions of examples of how to solve programming problems. Tools like GitHub Copilot can study all that code and learn to write programs independently. Meanwhile, other professions lack the same volume of accessible training data.
This data advantage explains the speed of disruption in software development and provides a framework for understanding which other roles face similar risks.
What Survives the Transition
The roles that survive require fundamentally different competencies. While basic coding becomes automated, demand explodes for professionals who can bridge business strategy and AI capabilities. The most valuable professionals will be those who understand how to translate between technical AI possibilities and business needs.
Recent layoffs provide telling evidence. CrowdStrike laid off 500 employees in May 2025, with CEO George Kurtz explaining that "AI flattens our hiring curve, and helps us innovate from idea to product faster." Microsoft eliminated 6,000 positions while simultaneously announcing new AI coding agents that can fix bugs, add features, and handle other programming tasks.
The pattern is clear: organizations are discovering they can accomplish more with fewer people when AI handles routine technical work.
The Retail Connection
Retail faces particularly acute disruption because customer expectations are evolving faster than many organizations can adapt. Posner's work reveals that successful retailers are those implementing AI not just for internal efficiency, but for fundamentally better customer experiences.
The industry is gathering momentum around practical AI implementation. Retail Club Huntington Beach 2025 brings together top retail and eCommerce leaders on September 14 to explore exactly these challenges—how to navigate workforce transformation while improving customer outcomes.
The Bottom Line
The evidence is overwhelming: AI is already transforming product and digital roles, and the pace is accelerating. This isn't a future disruption—it's happening now. Computer programming leads the transformation, but other roles in product development, digital marketing, and customer experience are following the same trajectory.
Jenna Flateman Posner offers practical guidance from someone who has successfully helped organizations navigate multiple waves of technological change. Her insights are based on real-world implementation experience rather than theoretical speculation.
For professionals wondering how AI will reshape their careers, the question isn't whether this transformation will happen—it's whether they'll develop the hybrid skills needed to remain valuable in an AI-augmented workplace.
Learn more about navigating the AI transformation in retail at RetailClub 2025 on September 14-17, featuring Jenna Flateman Posner's session "The Future of Your Function: How AI Is Disrupting Product and Digital Roles."
.png)
Comments