What Prism taught me: AI doesn't have limits, and neither do you
I participated in a Product AI training, and it was the best initiative I have ever been part of at Unit4. It changed everything for me!
I should give you some context. My name is Ana Mestre, I am the Global Service Center Manager for People Experience — I live in HR, my team manages processes and solves problems for people across 21 countries every day. Product training was not exactly on my radar.
But I got invited to Prism, Unit4's AI adoption programme and a chance to learn, experiment, and build something real. I said yes before I even finished reading the email.
The commute to Lisbon on day one was a mix of nerves and excitement. I had done a lot of pre-work, new frameworks, a module concept, new abbreviations, installing Claude and a set of skills to get comfortable with. I kept asking myself if I was going to be prepared enough. I kept an open mind and hoped for the best.
The sessions started and very quickly I noticed something I didn't expect, I could follow the instructions easily. Not just follow but get exciting results quickly. The facilitators walked us through each step and Claude was there with me at every single one.
What would normally take me 6 months to a year to produce, from a full product concept, a requirements document, a working prototype, and a pitch, we built together in two days. At some point I looked up and thought “I am actually doing this. That moment changed how I see my role. Not just my current role, but what my role could be.
Here is the thing about working with AI and that I would like to transmit to you, it does not make you redundant. It makes you fearless about letting go of the routine parts of your job: the tasks that slow you down, the things that take forever. You’ll be able to see everything else it enables you to do instead. I did not lose anything in Lisbon. I gained a completely different picture of what is possible.
The Product colleagues I met were some of the most curious, solution-oriented, fast-thinking people I have come across at Unit4. I connected with them quickly because I recognised something in the way they think — that same appetite for finding a better way. Clara Alvelos, from the UX team, became the person I worked closest with. She got what I need before I finished explaining it, and she has the same hunger for innovation that keeps me going. That kind of connection across functions and disciplines is something that needs to happen more often at Unit4.
My concept, Absence Intelligence, won the Lisbon pitch. I am still a little surprised when I say that out loud.
The commute to Lisbon on day one was a mix of nerves and excitement. I had done a lot of pre-work, new frameworks, a module concept, new abbreviations, installing Claude and a set of skills to get comfortable with. I kept asking myself if I was going to be prepared enough. I kept an open mind and hoped for the best.
The sessions started and very quickly I noticed something I didn't expect, I could follow the instructions easily. Not just follow but get exciting results quickly. The facilitators walked us through each step and Claude was there with me at every single one.
What I hope you’ll remember
I know many of us are still finding our feet with AI. Some are curious but have not started yet. Some are waiting. Some are genuinely worried about what it means for them. I was somewhere in that mix not long ago too. What I can tell you now that I've seen the other side is that worry is understandable, but fear is not necessary. AI does not replace what makes you valuable — your knowledge, your instincts, the way you understand your part of this business from the inside. It just removes the ceiling on what you can do with it.
We do not all need to become product managers, but we all have something worth bringing into the conversation. And AI is what makes it possible for any of us to show up to that conversation, regardless of our function, our title, or the room we are walking into.
I walked into a room full of product experts, not entirely sure I belonged there.
Turns out I did.
