Nicolas Sauvage believes judgment and taste will be what sets people apart in the AI era — and that’s why he’s bullish on product managers.
The president of venture capital firm TDK Ventures told Business Insider that product managers are one of three job categories that will rise in demand as AI reshapes work.
“Product managers have that ability to add a judgment layer on top of what AI could provide,” said Sauvage, who leads the firm’s global investment activities across deep tech, including energy, AI and compute, and industrial and robotics.
Founded in 2019 by Sauvage, TDK Ventures manages $500 million across four funds and invests in tech entrepreneurs.
This is part of a series of stories from Business Insider’s conversation with TDK Ventures founder and president Nicolas Sauvage. To be alerted when the next piece publishes, follow reporter Ana Altchek here.
In a workplace with an “abundance of information,” product managers can bring ownership and discernment to decisions, Sauvage said. AI may be able to conduct extensive research and process more documents than a human, but people still need to assess whether its conclusions make sense — and own the final product.
Product managers also understand what customers want and how to turn those insights into products and solutions that are compelling and competitive, he said.
TDK Ventures
Sauvage’s comments come as technical jobs are changing rapidly, with responsibilities increasingly overlapping across roles. Engineers now often think more like product managers, while product managers can build features and test their own demos.
Engineers and scientists
Sauvage said that engineers, scientists, and physicists will be in greater demand as AI drives new innovation and expands the need for people with technical expertise.
“We will need more of them, and this is definitively something that AI can augment but cannot replace,” Sauvage said.
He recommended studying math, physics, and science, saying that those subjects will be crucial to understanding how the new technology works.
Sauvage said these disciplines can also help workers develop first-principles thinking, a problem-solving approach that involves breaking complex ideas down to their fundamentals.
Consultants
Sauvage said the third job category he expects to grow may seem surprising: consultants.
These workers “are going to be that fabric, that liaison, that interface between everything that AI can deliver,” Sauvage said.
He said consultants will help businesses and their customers effectively adopt new technology. The adoption of those technologies is critical to be able to “leverage AI in the best possible way,” Sauvage said.
His comments come as the traditional consulting career path is at a crossroads. Big Four firm PwC has hired fewer consultants in recent years, and across the industry, firms are racing to position themselves as AI-native, reshaping the services they offer and how they operate.
