Professional Scrum Product Owner - AI Essentials (PSPO-AI) is Scrum.org's certification for Product Owners who apply AI in their work. It asks how AI can help a Product Owner deliver more value, where it cannot replace judgement, and how to use it responsibly.
The exam at a glance
- Questions: 40, multiple choice, multiple answer and true or false
- Time: 60 minutes, about 90 seconds per question
- Pass mark: 85%, so you can miss at most 6 questions
- Cost: $200 USD per attempt
- Prerequisite: none; Scrum.org recommends its PSPO AI Essentials class but does not require it
- Validity: the certification does not expire
You do not need PSPO I first, but the questions assume you know product ownership in Scrum: the Product Goal, the Product Backlog, stakeholders and value. If those are shaky, start there.
The three focus areas
1. AI Theory and Primer
How large language models work, why they hallucinate, and what retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), fine-tuning and AI agents are. For a Product Owner this matters twice: when you use AI yourself, and when your product contains AI features whose answers are probabilistic.
2. AI Product Ownership
The role-specific area, and the broadest. It covers AI in product discovery, for example to cluster feedback or prepare interviews, without replacing contact with real customers. It covers AI in Product Backlog management, where AI can draft and summarise but the Product Owner stays accountable for ordering. And it covers building products with AI features: releasing in small steps, evaluating outcomes and measuring value with Evidence-Based Management.
3. AI Security and Ethics
Data protection and approved tools, bias and fairness, accountability and transparency, the principles of trustworthy AI and the EU AI Act. Expect questions where a fast shortcut conflicts with customer data or fairness. The responsible answer is usually the right one.
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Henrik Kniberg's "Generative AI in a Nutshell", above, is part of our AI product ownership lesson. It explains what generative AI means for products and for the way teams work, in plain language.
A typical question
An AI tool analyses usage data and proposes a new order for the Product Backlog. What should the Product Owner do?
Treat the proposal as input, not as a decision. The Product Owner remains accountable for ordering the Product Backlog and for maximising the value of the product. The proposal can be a useful starting point, to be checked against the Product Goal, stakeholder needs and evidence. Answers that adopt the order automatically, or ignore the tool altogether, are both wrong.
Five tips for the exam
- Value first. Ask which answer best serves the Product Goal and the customer, not which uses the most AI.
- Accountability does not move. AI can draft, analyse and suggest. Decisions on the Product Backlog stay with the Product Owner.
- Evidence over opinion. For AI features, look for answers that release small, measure outcomes and adapt.
- Watch the data. Pasting customer data into an unapproved tool is never the right answer, however fast it would be.
- Practise under time. Ninety seconds per question is enough if you do not get stuck. Mark hard questions and return to them.
A study plan that works
Our PSPO-AI Essentials learning path has one lesson per focus area, each with videos, a narrated version, the text and a quiz. After that come Scrum.org's free Product Owner AI Open, our two practice exams in the real format and the exam tips. You can set the path to 24 hours, one week or longer.
All details are on our PSPO-AI Essentials certification page, and you can try 15 questions from the first practice exam for free.