REVEALED: Inside the Hidden Costs of Your AI Features

In 2026, AI Investments Will Face A Reckoning. Are You Ready For It?

AI sounded exciting. Until CFOs and Board ask what it's actually worth.

Product teams everywhere are being pulled into AI initiatives without a clear business case. But the questions are coming. In the next 12-18 months. Possibly as soon as next quarter. And most teams aren't ready to answer them.

If you're honest, this probably feels uncomfortably familiar:

• AI initiatives were approved on hype, urgency, or "we can’t fall behind."
• That AI work is competing with proven revenue and cost-saving initiatives.
• Costs are piling up, but value is still fuzzy.
• CFOs and Boards will ask: "What are we getting for this?" They may already be asking.
• As the product leader, you'll be expected to explain ROI without a framework, model, or shared language.

This is the moment where credibility is either built—or quietly lost.

We've Seen This Movie Before

It happens every time there's a cool new technology washing over the industry.

• Teams told to "just start with AI" and figure out value later.
• Product leaders caught between executive pressure and financial reality.
• Smart PMs feeling exposed when conversations move from demos to dollars.

You're not behind. You just weren't set up to succeed.

And you're not alone in feeling this tension.

The Truth Most AI Conversations Avoid

AI doesn't change the rules of business.

Capital still needs stewardship. Profitability still matters. Boards and CFOs will still demand returns.

The future belongs to product leaders who can:

• Evaluate AI like a real investment
• Explain tradeoffs clearly
• Connect AI initiatives to real customer and P&L impact

When you get this right, success looks like:

• Confidence in executive conversations
• AI initiatives that survive scrutiny
• Being seen as a Business Leader—not an AI hobbyist

That's what our first Street Smart Product Manager Live! episode of 2026 will give you.

The Insider Masterclass You Won't Find Anywhere Else

Join Simonetta Batteiger, Founder of Inclusive Leaders, and product Jedi, Shardul Mehta, for a live masterclass + behind-the-scenes breakdown of how serious product leaders think about:

• The true cost of AI readiness
• What AI actually needs to return to justify itself
• How to build a business case leaders trust

Anchored in Simonetta's published ROI-of-AI framework and her real AI business case template, we'll walk through how to:

• Estimate the real cost of AI readiness
• Set realistic ROI expectations (e.g., 5–7x returns)
• Use product economics—not hype—to guide decisions

You'll see the model.
You'll understand the logic.
And you'll know how to apply it in your own context.

And we'll answer all your questions!

Meet Your Expert Guides

Simonetta Batteiger — Founder of Inclusive Leaders, a seasoned product leader who has built and scaled products used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. She led global expansion at eyeo (Adblock Plus), doubling both users and revenue while building resilient, high-performing teams. Her recent work focuses on trust-driven, AI-enabled product experiences and the financial realities of AI readiness—especially in complex and regulated environments. She brings a rare combination of technical depth, business fluency, and real-world accountability.

Shardul Mehta — He's been recognized as a "Product Jedi." 30+ years in product management and entrepreneurship, 4x founder, thought leader, mentor, writer, speaker, and veteran of startups and Fortune 100 enterprises across a variety of industries. Shardul has launched and grown products from 0 to $100M+. He writes one of the fastest-growing newsletters for PMs worldwide, and is the host of Street Smart Product Manager Live!, a series dedicated to helping PMs bridge the gap between theory and practice. His work focuses on empowering product managers to think like business leaders — using insight, strategy, and influence to create products customers love.

Together, we bring the executive-level financial thinking, deep product judgment, and hard-earned experience defending investments when it matters most.

This session brings you the practical, lived experience most people never get access to.

Why You Need To Join Live

This episode has been specifically designed for product managers and leaders worldwide who:

• Are already working on AI initiatives
• Are being asked to start AI work without clear ROI guidance
• Need to justify AI investments retroactively
• Want to future-proof their careers by mastering AI economics

If AI is anywhere on your roadmap, this episode is for you.

In under 1 hour, you'll walk away with:

• A clear mental model for evaluating AI as a business investment.
• A realistic understanding of the true cost of AI readiness.
• A live walkthrough of a practical AI business case template.
• Guidance on what boards, CFOs, and executives actually care about.
• The ability to speak the language of finance without becoming a finance expert.
• Confidence in defending AI investments and challenging initiatives that lack business or customer logic.

Practical. Applied. And immediately usable.

CFOs and Boards Are Coming For AI Budgets.

Starting in 2026, they'll start asking uncomfortable questions.

That's when the organization will turn to YOU — the product lead — asking you to defend and justify AI investments the company has or is planning to make.

It won't matter whether you had proposed them or they were "handed down" to you. Product Management will be expected to justify the investments and prove the ROI.

When that happens, PM teams will be on the hook. It's already started.

AI initiatives without financial grounding become expensive experiments, easy budget cuts, and career liabilities.

But product leaders who can show credible ROI will:

• Gain trust
• Get funded
• Get promoted

This session helps you stay on the right side of that divide.

🎟️ Join us live and learn the hidden costs behind your AI investments and how to evaluate AI the way executives will — before they ask.

Walk away with clarity, confidence, and tools you can use immediately.

This is the conversation most teams won't have until it's too late.

Don't wait for the question.

👉 Reserve your free seat today and be ready with the answer.

Simonetta has sponsored this benefit for you:

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Promote your product or brand to a passionate community of product leaders and innovators for one flat fee. [140 chars max]

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Event notes:

• Replay will be available to those who register.
• Inner Circle Members of Street Smart Product Manager will get the full premium career toolkit. Specific learning materials vary per event but examples include the transcript, slides, notes, learning guides, concept explainers, career tools, templates, and multimedia materials. Think of it as your own private training library!

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