As artificial intelligence reshapes the product management landscape, women leaders are at the forefront of driving innovation, building inclusive teams, and redefining what it means to build technology responsibly.
Tech in Motion talked to two accomplished women in the field, Shilpa Shastri, Principal Product Manager, Data and Insights at Apptio (an IBM company), and Rakshana Balakrishnan, Product Leader at Oracle, who shared how they're leveraging AI, championing underrepresented voices, and inspiring the next generation of women in tech.
Shilpa Shastri is a product leader with a proven track record of transforming cloud computing, AI, and data solutions into revenue generators at AWS and Microsoft. Rakshana Balakrishnan is an accomplished cloud product leader with 12+ years of experience in designing and delivering technical cloud-based products from concept to launch, including 0-to-1 and 1-to-n products.
Q: Are there any current or upcoming projects, initiatives, or research areas you're excited about?
Shilpa Shastri: What excites me most right now is the sheer pace of what is possible with AI, and making sure the people around me can keep up with it.
I am deeply focused on embedding AI into how product teams actually work: automating workflows, synthesizing large volumes of data in seconds, building apps and prototypes on the fly through vibe coding, and generating product requirements documents that used to take days. These are not just productivity hacks. They represent a fundamental shift in how we work, and I think we are only at the beginning of understanding what that really means.
I believe we are entering an era where the traditional boundaries between product management, engineering, and design will blur. The teams that thrive will be the ones where every member is fluent in AI tools.
That is what I am most passionate about right now: helping teammates become more generalist, more adaptive, and more confident building with AI.
Staying relevant in the coming years means leaning in now, and I want to be part of making that accessible to the people I work with.
Catch Shilpa's recent workshop exploring how cloud computing platforms are and could revolutionize inclusive data practices by democratizing access to powerful collection and analysis tools.
Rakshana Balakrishnan: I recently moved from AWS to Oracle into an exciting new role as a Product Leader for Oracle Database@AWS, and the biggest change has been expanding my scope of influence from leading the product direction and cross-functional execution within one organization to shaping the vision and roadmap for a product that is jointly owned by two large technology companies. It requires building consensus across different teams, cultures, and technical priorities to ultimately deliver a seamless, high-quality multicloud product experience for customers.
I’m particularly energized to lead the concept-to-launch journey for Oracle Database@AWS, a first-of-its-kind product that enables organizations worldwide to modernize applications and leverage advanced architectural (AI) capabilities across Oracle and AWS cloud environments, with high-performance cross-cloud connectivity.
AI in multicloud is a highly specialized domain, with fewer than 1% of product managers globally operating at this intersection. In many ways, this work is defining the path forward in a space with no precedent, effectively building the road where none existed.
Beyond work, I’m passionate about shaping the future of cloud and AI product management through speaking engagements at forums such as ProductCamp Pittsburgh 2025 and Product World 2026, one of the world’s largest gatherings for product managers and developers with over 2,200 attendees. I’m especially excited to have been invited to speak at the upcoming MIT CIO Innovator Network series to present my novel leadership framework on governance, security, and scalable deployment of agentic AI within enterprise cloud environments to a selective audience of CIOs, CEOs, and senior technology executives.
Rakshana speaking at ProductWorld, Feb 2026
Q: Are there organizations, community efforts, or causes especially meaningful to you?
Shastri: Mentorship is not an obligation; it’s something I love. I mentor regularly, and I mean that genuinely. Not as a checkbox, not as a professional courtesy, but because it is one of the most energizing parts of my work. I mentor across the full spectrum: high schoolers exploring tech for the first time, seasoned professionals navigating a career pivot into AI, and everyone in between.
In the greater Seattle area, I have mentored and judged at AI hackathons, including events hosted by Seattle City, where I have had the privilege of watching incredibly creative minds tackle real-world problems with emerging technology. I am also involved with Computing for All, a Seattle-based nonprofit focused on expanding access to STEM education. I speak to and coach students who are aiming for careers in tech and AI, students who might not otherwise see themselves in those rooms. That work matters deeply to me.
I think about representation in AI a lot. It is not just a pipeline problem. It is a design problem. The people building these systems shape what they optimize for, what they miss, and who they serve.
So when I show up to a hackathon or a school visit, I am not just teaching technical skills. I am trying to show students, especially young women and those from underrepresented communities, that there is a seat at this table for them, and that they belong in rooms where the future of technology is being decided.
Balakrishnan: My community engagement efforts are driven by a commitment to advancing equitable access and representation in STEM for women and underrepresented communities. Through partnerships with global nonprofit organizations such as Stemettes, Aspirations for Women in Computing, and Develop for Good, I have mentored more than 500 young women over the past several years, supporting their development into technical and leadership roles.
Additionally, we are at an interesting inflection point with product management. AI is transforming how product managers conceptualize, build and deliver technical products and I believe it is critical now more than ever for product managers to master skills such as vibe coding—the ability to rapidly translate ideas into working prototypes using AI.
That’s one of the reasons why I value serving as a co-organizer for ProductTank DC, a community of more than 2,800 product professionals operating under the Mind the Product umbrella, dedicated to advancing product excellence and collaboration across the greater Washington D.C. region. As a co-organizer, I’ve championed next-generation product skills within my community and helped product professionals embrace AI-assisted building through hackathons and hands-on workshops.
Q: What motivates or inspires you in your work today?
Shastri: Honestly? The pace of change, and the responsibility that comes with it.
We are living through one of the most significant technological shifts in a generation, and I get to be in the middle of it. It still feels like a privilege. What drives me every day is the belief that how we build AI right now, the decisions we make about accuracy, about trust, about who benefits, will shape what this technology becomes for the next decade.
But the motivation that runs deepest is not the technology itself. It is the people. It is the teammate who learns to use an AI tool and suddenly sees their job differently. It is the student at a hackathon who does not think they are "technical enough" and then ships something brilliant. It is the enterprise customer who finally has visibility into their supply chain for the first time. When the work lands for real people in real ways, that is what keeps me going.
I have built products from zero to one more times than I can count, and somehow, the start of something, the blank page, the first prototype, the first customer, never gets less exciting. I hope it never does.
One of my biggest beliefs in the work I’m doing is that technology should be both powerful and accessible."
Rakshana Balakrishnan, Oracle
Balakrishnan: I find inspiration in transforming complex technical challenges into platforms that empower others—whether by lowering barriers to cloud adoption for enterprises, helping innovators at federal institutions and universities responsibly experiment with AI, or amplifying voices that have historically been underrepresented in technology leadership.
Through my talks and frameworks, my goal is to help both new and experienced product professionals navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of cloud and AI. I focus on equipping them with practical ways to break down traditional barriers in product development and build end-to-end products that deliver meaningful and measurable value to customers.
Watch Rakshana's workshop that takes you through an innovative thought exercise to apply DEI principles to create impactful tech products and be a thoughtful product leader.
Q: What does Women's History Month mean to you, particularly within the context of the tech industry?
Shastri: Women's History Month is a moment to pause and recognize how far we have come, and to be honest about how far we still have to go. In tech, those two truths sit in particularly sharp tension.
When I started my career, I did not have many examples to point to and say, that is what I am working toward. That absence is something you feel, even when you cannot fully articulate it at the time. So for me, this month is personal. It is a reminder of the women who cleared paths before I had the language to thank them for it.
In the context of the tech industry specifically, I think this month carries extra weight right now. We are at an inflection point with AI. Decisions being made today about how these systems are built, what they prioritize, and who they are built for will have consequences for decades. If women are not in those rooms, those consequences will reflect that absence. That is not hypothetical. We have seen it happen before with earlier generations of technology.
So what does this month mean to me? It is a call to action as much as a celebration. It means showing up visibly, in leadership, in mentorship, in the spaces where the next generation of women in tech are watching to see if they belong. It means being honest about the barriers that still exist, especially for women from underrepresented communities, rather than pretending the work is done. And it means continuing to build, products, teams, and careers, in a way that makes it a little easier for the woman coming up behind me than it was for me.
Women's History Month is a call to action as much as a celebration.
Shilpa Shastri, Apptio (an IBM company)
Balakrishnan: For me, Women’s History Month is an opportunity to recognize the collective contributions of women shaping the future of technology, from engineers and designers to product leaders and founders.
According to data referenced by the World Bank, women currently represent only about 35% of employees in STEM fields in the United States.
As a result, many women in technology often find themselves among the few female voices in team discussions and executive conversations - a reality I have personally navigated many times.
Celebrating Women’s History Month means honoring those who have opened doors, while committing ourselves to opening even more. When women, across backgrounds and experiences, see themselves reflected in tech leadership, that inspiration creates ripple effects for the next generation of innovators. I encourage all women reading this to set aside your imposter syndrome, find your rightful voice and seat at every boardroom table, and take a vow to help more women succeed in tech.
