Artificial Intelligence is no longer an abstract, future-oriented concept. It’s a present-day capability, woven into our lives and businesses. Increasingly, agile teams are turning to artificial intelligence to adapt to changing markets, respond quickly to demand, and deliver more value in a shorter timeframe.
From large enterprises to the smallest organizations, those that are becoming AI-Native are gaining a competitive advantage. But what tasks specifically should you hand over to AI? Generative AI (GAI) can’t replace the critical thinking or collaboration that makes agile teams successful. But leveraging AI tools and integrating them into workflows can free up resources and slash delivery time by automating some tasks for your role.
Kaitlin Whitney, PhD, Senior Predictive Insights and Analytics Manager at Scaled Agile, researched the effects of generative AI on agile team performance and found that smart implementation of AI can boost how many objectives an agile team actually accomplishes. The key, she said, is to ensure teams have a strong sense of where and how to apply GAI to work tasks and their roles. Teams should utilize best practices and ensure that everyone has access to the right knowledge and skills around GAI.
Most companies are experimenting with AI, but few understand how to generate meaningful value from AI tools in an agile setting.
Whether you’re a Scrum Master, Product Owner/Product Manager, or other SAFe practitioner, here are some approaches to automating tasks that will add value, create efficiencies, and slash delivery time:
Using AI to Augment the SAFe Scrum Master Role: Refine Backlogs and Improve Estimates
SAFe’s use of iterations and increments provides the ideal foundation for implementing rapidly changing technologies. Managing a backlog requires continuous refinement and prioritization. By automating repetitive tasks, Scrum Masters can free up time for more human-centric work like coaching, removing blocks, and empowering teams.
For example, AI tools can scan the backlog for duplicates or incomplete stories. It can identify stories that might be too large and need to be broken down. It can also assist with retrospective insights, helping Scrum Masters analyze patterns across multiple retros to identify recurring themes and track whether action items actually led to improvements. Other tasks that AI can support include metrics analysis to spot trends in velocity, cycle time, and throughput.
Responsible AI in Product Roles: Feedback Analysis and User Story Development
Product Owners and Product Managers can utilize AI tools to analyze customer feedback, group by common themes, and flag actionable items. Input value propositions, product information, user personas, constraints, and desired outcomes, and AI can generate a first draft of user stories that product professionals can then customize and refine. It can also help generate user personas and document updates for stakeholders.
AI tools may also help product professionals analyze the backlog and stories and compare them against product goals, value propositions, and user feedback. And, in the product role, AI tools can assist with competitor analysis and social listening to stay ahead of market trends and product release strategy.
AI Tasks for SAFe Professionals: Effort Estimation and AI Project Management
For agile team members, responsible AI is a valuable tool for breaking down epics into stories, summarizing historical data, and using that data to estimate effort and assign story points. By analyzing larger tasks, AI can help agile teams outline requirements, identify features and milestones, and flag any steps that might have been overlooked in the estimation process.
AI tools can also help teams forecast more realistic effort measurement based on past performance and current demands. Finally, day-to-day, AI can save practitioners valuable time by streamlining processes such as generating meeting notes and action items, summarizing research and documents, skill gap analysis, and accelerated learning.
To learn more about integrating AI seamlessly into your agile role, visit our training calendar.
Download Becoming AI-Native to discover the complete transformation framework.
Schedule a strategic conversation to explore how your team can evolve from AI-fluent to fully AI-Native—and start building the systems that make AI success repeatable.