Bridging the Global Readiness Gap in the Age of Agentic AI

By Talia Zur Baruch, GlobalSaké & LocLearn Founder

Earlier this month, like many teary-eyed proud parents, I flew to Boston to attend my daughter’s graduation from Northeastern University. One of the commencement speeches stood out to me—it focused on Orthogonal Thinking: the concept of drawing connections across different domains and leveraging unconventional approaches for problem solving.

By breaking free of familiar patterns, we open ourselves up to new possibilities. This kind of interdisciplinary, non-linear thinking allows us to approach challenges from broader rounded-view perspectives to uncover creative solutions.

One metaphor shared in the speech particularly resonated with me: The destiny of glass is to break. But that’s not the end of its journey; it’s the beginning of its breakthrough transformation. In the forever recyclable nature of glass, lies the opportunity to break barriers and reshape, repurpose, & recreate its new destiny.

This metaphor made me reflect on the importance of building resiliently-adaptable, globally-relevant products—not only for today’s diverse use cases, but also for the world’s diverse use cases in a future we cannot yet see.  

As companies now race to integrate advanced AI technologies into their operations, a crucial gap remains: launching products that are global-ready from day one. Despite rapid innovation, many products still fall short when it comes to adoption in new markets.

Why?

Because being “international” isn’t a feature; it’s a mindset, a method, a muscle that many companies haven’t yet fully exercised. It’s time for a strategic mind shift from “Domestic vs International” to “Global-Ready from the Get-Go.”

Our end goal: Launch adaptive products that are discoverable, usable, and valuable for the diverse populations and use cases of the world.

So, what’s holding us back?

1. Siloed Org Structures vs. Global Synergy

Most organizations are still structured in vertical functional team silos. International, however, is a widely horizontal cross-functional effort that applies to every codebase and every team function. Without horizontal alignment, global initiatives get fragmented and deprioritized. The result? Products that work well at home but lose traction abroad.

2. The "US-First, Rest-of World-Later" Mindset

Too many companies still follow a linear launch cycle where products are first ideated, prototyped, developed, designed and delivered for US (or core English markets), with international as an afterthought. This leads to feature lag, compromised value fit, and a subpar user experience for non-English non-US markets. Therefore, by default, late adoption new markets show lower product discoverability, engagement, and lifetime-value retention.

3. A Skills Gap leading to an Adoption Gap

Reaching sustainable global growth requires interdisciplinary expertise and an adaptive orientation. Traditional product management leaders are responsible for global metrics, yet few are trained in the necessary global requirements for setting the relevant regional and cultural specs in their products roadmap. Their PRDs often miss key geo-specifications required for building adaptive features fit for the use cases and UX expected behavior of their audiences in new markets. Meanwhile, localization leaders have linguistic and cultural expertise but lack the core product management training needed to drive international launches end-to-end.

Over my 25 years in the industry, I’ve worked on both sides: localization and product management. I’ve seen firsthand how the lack of shared language and skills between these functions leads to missed opportunities in global markets performance.

This is why I developed the International Product Management (Global-Ready & Geo-Fit) course—an applied, interdisciplinary program designed to train and empower professionals with the tools, methodology frameworks, and practical case study insights they need to drive adaptive product-led growth on a global scale. This summer, I’ll be teaching the fifth and final cohort of this training. Join Us!