Everybody right now appears keen to speak about how AI is accelerating software program improvement. Groups are delivery quicker. People are extra productive. Total backlogs could be written in minutes. Estimates are a click on away. Code that when took days now materializes in minutes. With all this newfound pace, it’s comprehensible that groups and leaders begin asking whether or not they nonetheless want the identical sorts of collaboration—and even the identical sorts of groups.
But hidden beneath all that enthusiasm is a danger that hasn’t obtained sufficient consideration. Actually, I might argue it’s the danger that agile leaders ought to be paying the closest consideration to.
AI doesn’t remove groups; it will increase the necessity for nice ones.
The quicker a crew strikes, the extra collaboration it requires. The extra productive particular person contributors grow to be, the extra their work must be coordinated. And the extra highly effective AI turns into as a device, the extra harmful it’s when somebody makes use of it in isolation. Put merely, AI amplifies every little thing—together with misalignment.
Sadly, many groups are responding to AI by collaborating much less. And that’s the place issues start to collapse.
The Drift Away from Collaboration
Over the previous few years, I’ve watched groups undertake AI instruments in ways in which unintentionally scale back communication. Builders can now accomplish big quantities of labor on their very own. Product Homeowners can use AI to generate and cut up backlog gadgets and even prioritize entire roadmaps. Groups begin to imagine they not want to speak as actually because the tooling is doing a lot of the work.
The idea goes: if AI can generate tales, code, and assessments, maybe the crew can get by with fewer discussions.
The fact may be very completely different.
I’ve seen groups that, excited by AI’s effectivity, quietly slip into working as a set of people reasonably than as a cohesive unit. They could maintain the identical conferences, however the communication inside these conferences turns into skinny and surface-level. Outdoors the conferences, collaboration dwindles even additional.
Instance: A Group Strikes Quick with AI, however Stops Speaking
Contemplate one crew that dramatically accelerated improvement as a result of AI allowed it to refine and construct options quicker than ever. Impressed with the pace, they assumed their longstanding collaboration habits had been not obligatory. They talked much less. They shared much less. They coordinated much less. And predictably, they started constructing a sequence of options that didn’t combine effectively and didn’t match stakeholder expectations. That they had elevated their output however degraded their outcomes.
Their downside wasn’t AI.
Their downside was collaboration.
And AI merely magnified it.
How AI Is Remodeling Roles—and Why That Issues
AI isn’t just dashing up improvement. It’s reshaping what the important thing roles inside agile groups truly do. These adjustments are vital, and understanding them helps us perceive why collaboration stays so essential.
Product Homeowners within the Age of AI: Supported, however at Danger of Over-Reliance
Product Homeowners often is the largest beneficiaries of AI within the quick time period. AI may help them write backlog gadgets, generate acceptance standards, analyze buyer sentiment, summarize analysis, and even suggest priorities. For a job that has at all times struggled with having sufficient time to do the job, this can be a welcome change.
However with that help comes temptation. It turns into too simple to delegate an excessive amount of considering to an AI. A Product Proprietor who lets AI drive backlog prioritization or roadmap selections dangers drifting away from buyer wants, enterprise realities, and strategic intent. AI can help, nevertheless it can not personal core selections comparable to product imaginative and prescient, market positioning, buyer segmentation, or enterprise fashions.
AI is a robust assistant however a poor navigator.
I’ve seen Product Homeowners who let the AI do many of the heavy lifting solely to find later that the product had wandered off target. It’s an instance of how AI is usually a highly effective assistant however a poor navigator.
Scrum Masters: Transferring From Framework Guardians to Collaboration Coaches
For years, I’ve believed the Scrum Grasp position would inevitably shift as groups grow to be extra skilled. As a crew turns into proficient with Scrum, crew members take in a number of the obligations of a Scrum Grasp.
AI is accelerating that shift. The longer term Scrum Grasp is much less of a course of guardian and extra of a human dynamics professional. They may doubtless work throughout a number of groups, function part-time on any single one, and spend far much less vitality worrying about prescriptive frameworks.
As an alternative, they may give attention to serving to folks work effectively collectively. Asking robust questions, facilitating constructive disagreements, and guiding the crew via troublesome selections—these human-centric expertise will outline the position. Scrum Masters and agile coaches who cling to checklists and frameworks will grow to be much less efficient. Those that domesticate emotional intelligence, facilitation expertise, and the power to teach collaboration will grow to be important.
I’ve seen Scrum Masters who stay overly targeted on rituals and mechanics whereas their groups quietly slide into dysfunctional communication patterns. In an AI-driven world, that method merely received’t work.
Builders: Extra Productive Than Ever
Builders have additionally skilled extraordinary leaps in productiveness. AI helps them generate code, uncover bugs, discover architectural patterns, and write assessments. This permits them to perform way more in much less time. And with that elevated capability comes a shift in crew design. Many merchandise that beforehand required groups of eight would possibly now successfully be constructed by groups of 4 or 5.
This shift additionally adjustments how groups take into consideration specialization. We’ll nonetheless want world-class consultants for extremely specialised issues, however many groups will depend on robust generalists who possess broad expertise and deep AI fluency. It additionally signifies that builders—shifting quicker than ever—should talk extra ceaselessly to keep away from stepping on one another’s work.
AI accelerates their capabilities. Human alignment ensures these capabilities don’t create chaos.
The Way forward for Agile Groups: Smaller, Extra Fluid, and Extra International
All of those adjustments level towards a future the place agile groups look completely different than they did even just a few years in the past. I count on groups to grow to be smaller and extra fluid. In lots of organizations, “crew membership” will embrace a steady core supplemented by short-term specialists who be a part of for just a few weeks or months to work on extremely advanced duties earlier than shifting on.
Groups may also proceed to grow to be extra globally distributed. The “work from wherever” motion has solely strengthened, and AI will make collaboration throughout time zones simpler.
But regardless of these adjustments, the definition of a crew ought to stay easy: a crew is a gaggle of identifiable folks pursuing a shared purpose. That definition nonetheless holds, even when membership turns into extra fluid.
As AI lowers the price of experimentation, groups will try extra concepts, pursue extra area of interest merchandise, and pivot extra shortly. This makes management extra—not much less—essential. Leaders should present course, so experimentation doesn’t devolve into chaos. They need to set strategic intent, outline boundaries, and articulate a North Star that groups can use as an anchor.
Important Collaboration Practices Each AI-Enabled Agile Group Should Defend
Since AI accelerates work, the practices that maintain groups collectively grow to be much more important.
Dash Evaluations Are Now Crucial Alignment Moments
The Dash Evaluate is one among them. As AI hurries up supply, making certain alignment between what the crew builds and what stakeholders count on turns into completely important. Solely via actual human suggestions—and the interpretation of that suggestions—can groups be certain that AI-accelerated work stays on track.
Backlog Refinement Wants Human Judgment, Even When AI Assists
Backlog refinement is one other observe that should stay human-led. AI can draft backlog gadgets or suggest methods to separate tales, however solely people can resolve if these gadgets include the suitable quantity of element, whether or not the intent is correct, and whether or not every aligns with the product imaginative and prescient.
Every day Communication Turns into Extra Essential, Not Much less
Every day communication turns into important as groups transfer quicker. That communication doesn’t should be in a proper assembly—many groups will select asynchronous check-ins reasonably than a standard day by day scrum—however the keys are frequency and consistency. When a crew can construct options in hours, they should speak about what they’re doing extra typically, not much less.
Iteration Planning Ensures Shared Understanding in a Excessive-Pace World
Iteration planning is equally indispensable. Even when AI assists in forecasting, the crew should nonetheless align on intent and perceive how their work matches collectively. Planning retains the crew grounded in shared understanding.
The frequent thread is easy:
AI accelerates work; collaboration prevents accelerated errors.
Groups that scale back collaboration as AI utilization will increase will finally undermine the very pace they’re attempting to achieve.
How Leaders Can Consider Whether or not AI is Serving to or Hurting Their Groups
Leaders typically ask how they’ll know whether or not AI helps or hurting their groups. The reply doesn’t require a dashboard stuffed with metrics.
Are crew members speaking extra ceaselessly than they did earlier than AI?
If communication is lowering, collaboration is weakening—and groups are heading into hazard.
The quicker the crew strikes, the extra important communication turns into.
What Agile Leaders Ought to Measure (And What They Ought to Cease Measuring)
AI doesn’t essentially change the metrics that matter. Time to worth nonetheless issues. The pace at which groups be taught and adapt nonetheless issues. Buyer outcomes nonetheless matter.
What leaders ought to keep away from is the temptation to discover a single productiveness metric that magically reveals crew efficiency. AI received’t create that metric. It isn’t coming.
Leaders ought to as a substitute consider how shortly their groups can experiment, be taught, adapt, and ship leads to alignment with buyer wants.
Replace Agile Rules for the AI Period
One of many unique Agile Manifesto ideas is “responding to vary over following a plan.” In an age the place AI makes experimentation extremely low cost, I might take {that a} step additional. Immediately’s agile groups shouldn’t merely reply to vary—they need to create it.
AI provides groups the instruments to discover potentialities proactively, not reactively. It permits them to check concepts shortly, pivot when obligatory, and uncover worth quicker than ever. However that solely works when collaboration and alignment stay robust.
A Warning—and a Name to Motion
If leaders misunderstand AI’s position, they could imagine collaboration is non-compulsory or that groups don’t want to speak as a lot. They could assume AI can take over decision-making or that agile roles matter much less.
The consequence will likely be groups that drift aside, lose alignment, and make quicker—however worse—selections. The true hazard of AI just isn’t the know-how itself however how groups behave once they imagine it could possibly change the human parts of teamwork.
And so, the decision to motion is obvious:
- Spend money on human expertise.
- Strengthen collaboration.
- Defend agile practices that make groups efficient.
- Help Scrum Masters as they evolve into true collaboration coaches.
- Assist Product Homeowners retain possession of imaginative and prescient and technique.
- Use AI as a companion, not a alternative for teamwork.
AI makes people quicker. Solely groups make merchandise nice.
Final replace: November twenty fifth, 2025
