Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

Everyone Was Rowing, No One Was Steering

10 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this monologue, the speaker reflects on the challenges of scaling AI development within large engineering organizations. He observes that while many expected every engineer to become an "AI builder," in practice designers and product managers tend to revert to their traditional roles, providing context and vision to unblock decisions. This re‑emergence of old responsibilities highlights a misconception: that universal AI‑building capability would replace the need for clear leadership. The speaker argues that when everyone is "rowing" (working on AI tasks), a designated "steering" function—clear direction, decision‑making authority, and ownership—is essential, especially in large teams. Small teams can still have AI builders, but larger groups require explicit steering roles to avoid chaos. The talk challenges the prevailing narrative about the future of AI work and underscores the importance of structured leadership in AI initiatives.

Chapters

We realized everyone was rowing, but no one was steering. And what happened organically, again, with a company with thousands of engineers or a lot of engineers at hand, is that people who are designers and product managers naturally went back to doing their old role. So they went back to, the best thing I can do to unblock this team from making a decision is give them the context of a customer, a vision, and all that. And so it's not saying AI builders won't exist. I totally think they exist, and certainly in small teams, you can still have them. It's just the misconception that we had that everyone's going to become an AI builder. Actually, when everyone's rowing, you need more— you need to be clear on who's steering and directing and who's playing that role. So the irony is we started with this assumption that everyone's an AI builder, but we ended up back in that Venn diagram, and that's where we are today. Who knows, it might change, but certainly it challenged some of the misconceptions that we had on where the world's headed.