The Next 30 Years of Scrum
Artificial intelligence is changing how teams plan, learn, and deliver. Over the next 30 years, Scrum will evolve from a process for teams into an operating model for human and AI collaboration. That shift places purpose, evidence, and ethics at the heart of delivery. It is also the core vision behind the Scrum Expansion Pack: a practical guide for building products that matter while technology accelerates.
Why Scrum must evolve now
Most organizations feel the pressure of rapid automation. The real risk is not replacement; it is creating more output that does not matter. Without a resilient framework, hybrid teams fall into integration issues, ethical blind spots, and always-on fatigue. Scrum must guide cognitive orchestration so that value, and values, remain central.
The vision in plain language
The next 30 years of Scrum reframes agility as the way to direct intelligence at scale. People bring intent, context, and creativity. AI brings speed, analysis, and pattern discovery. Scrum provides cadence, roles, artifacts, and evidence to align both and to keep learning continuous.
What changes in practice
Roles that collaborate with AI
Scrum Masters and Product Leaders use AI copilots to sense risk, improve flow, and refine backlogs. Teams learn when to accept suggestions and when to insist on human judgment. Accountability for outcomes and ethics stays with people.
Backlogs that include ethics
The backlog is more than a sequence of features. It is a set of choices about safety, privacy, fairness, and long-term impact. Prioritization balances these with time to market and revenue so that products serve real needs.
Planning that handles uncertainty
High-change environments reward probabilistic thinking. Plan in ranges, inspect true signals, and decide based on evidence. Replace certainty theater with transparent assumptions and short feedback loops.
Scope that scales to new frontiers
The same patterns that help a healthcare app today can guide complex systems tomorrow. The framework scales across long horizons and many forms of intelligence, from robotics to space programs.
A practical roadmap you can start now
Foundation and awareness
Create core assets for teams, executives, and trainers. Run focused sessions on Scrum and AI. Share visual summaries that clarify choices and trade-offs.
Engagement and early wins
Launch learning paths for AI-enhanced Scrum Masters and Product Owners. Pilot with a small number of initiatives to produce case studies and reusable playbooks.
Bridge the next five years
- Years 1–2: Embed copilots into roles and introduce training for human and robot collaboration.
- Year 3: Add health and ethics practices to prevent fatigue and bias while improving decisions.
- Year 4: Extend Scrum to larger, more complex systems with new metrics and simulations.
- Year 5: Release updated guidance with plugins and measures that track harmony between people and AI.
Why moving first matters
Leaders who act early gain a lasting advantage. They focus talent on outcomes, not outputs. They build market narratives that buyers understand. Most importantly, they reduce the chance of failed AI programs by putting ethics, evidence, and human purpose at the center from day one.
How to measure progress
- Unrealized value: Track interest signals for AI and large-scale topics to find the best opportunities.
- Current value: Monitor enrollments in training and revenue from pilot transformations to confirm traction.
- Time to market: Measure cycle times for experiments, prototypes, and policy updates so learning never stalls.
- Ability to innovate: Iterate guidance with feedback and real case studies to keep practices useful.
Tools that make the work real
Start small and build momentum:
- AI-integrated backlogs that compare human and machine priorities.
- Biofeedback in retrospectives to keep well-being visible and sustainable.
- Dashboards for new metrics that reflect risk, learning, and responsible impact.
Each tool stands alone. Together they form a system that keeps people in the loop while improving quality, speed, and trust.
What this means for your organization
If you are a founder, a chief product leader, or a transformation sponsor, the question is simple. Will your teams rely on a framework that assumes only human limits, or on one that helps people and AI deliver value together with integrity and joy? The next 30 years of Scrum invites you to choose the second path and to begin today.
Ready to prepare your organization for the next 30 years of Scrum?
Book a consultation with Jeff Sutherland to align strategy, training, and implementation for AI-ready agility.
In the meantime, learn more in our related presentation, which expands on this roadmap and offers a concise starter kit for getting started.
Discover more insights in the video.
