As society continues to make technological advances, there is an ongoing conversation and debate surrounding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on various, if not most, industries. AI is the ability of machines (software included) to perform complex tasks, and to learn over time to perform these tasks with fewer errors. As machines continue to learn, it means the bar is constantly being raised. Artificial intelligence is now typically regarded as the ability of machines to exhibit sophisticated forms of intelligence, like recognizing speech, faces, or handwriting, and driving a car.
AI and Project Management
If AI can drive cars, could AI “drive” (or manage) projects? Projects are typically non-routine endeavors that are temporary and result in something unique. Project management ensures that projects create value and are appropriately initiated, planned, executed, monitored, and closed. Initiation can be regarded as the preliminary work associated with getting a project started and closing refers to wrapping up and transitioning the project.
Could AI successfully carry out all the key components of managing a project? A common response to this question is that projects require interpersonal skills, networking, negotiation, judgment, and emotional intelligence, which machines lack, so AI could never completely manage a project. Those in favor of AI might counter that these soft skills are needed because too many humans are involved in projects. If AI could automate and replace more and more project management tasks that are performed by humans, there would be fewer humans involved in project management, so the need for these soft skills could be diminished.
We won’t attempt to resolve this debate, but there clearly is some merit to both perspectives. There seems to be a consensus that AI will take over tasks in many professions and disciplines (project management included) but will not necessarily eliminate jobs. When ATMs took over tasks that tellers typically performed, the number of teller jobs did not fall. In fact, that number of tellers grew, and the teller role changed from routine and repetitive tasks to performing tasks that created more value for the banks, such as enhancing the customer experience.
AI's Impact on the Economy
There are several studies that point to the immense positive impact of AI-powered work on the world economy. For example, a Goldman Sachs article estimates that the adoption of AI tools could contribute 1.5 percent to annual productivity growth over a 10-year period, which could lift the global gross domestic product (GDP) by nearly $7 trillion. AI has also been likened to the new electricity, which drastically reduced jobs in candle making and oil lamps but created far more jobs than it eliminated.
The story will very likely be the same for AI’s impact on project management. Many project management tasks will most likely be either performed or assisted by AI in the years to come, although it is difficult to say how long this will take to fully unfold. According to a Gartner article, 80 percent of today’s project management tasks could be eliminated by 2030 as AI continues to expand. While this is debatable, it would be folly to ignore the writing on the wall: that AI will indeed assist with or fully perform a large proportion of project management tasks sometime in the not-so-distant future.
As happened with tellers, this may create more meaningful, exciting, and higher-value project management jobs instead of eliminating them. Tasks may be eliminated but project management and team dynamics could become more impactful and vibrant, if organizations and universities take note, because we will have to transform how project management is perceived, practiced, and taught.
How AI Influences Project Management
Project management is seen today as a discipline vital to enabling project success and value creation. The demand for project management skills is high and growing. The 2021 Talent Gap Report from the Project Management Institute (PMI) states that the global economy needs 25 million new project professionals by 2030. To close the talent gap, 2.3 million people will need to enter project management-oriented employment (PMOE) every year to keep up with demand.
AI could elevate the perception of project management to a discipline that provides solutions to broader work challenges. Solutions need data to be analyzed and decisions to be made, which AI is poised to do. By embracing AI, project managers can leverage data to facilitate organizational-level decision-making, provide deep insights for stakeholders, and yield effective solutions to work-related challenges.
The transformation in how project management is perceived will heavily influence how it is practiced. Although organizations have made significant strides in incorporating project management practices, various studies and articles suggest that overall outcomes and performance of projects is lackluster, with bigger projects having higher rates of dysfunction. A 2023 Wall Street Journal article even stated that 99 percent of big projects fail. While some may argue with this statement, other studies support the claim that an alarming proportion of large projects have high rates of dysfunction and failure.
If projects can harness data to address challenges before and after the project starts, then organizations can make timely and effective corrective adjustments to ensure that off-track projects can quickly be restored to on-track performance, or at least that the future deviation from track can be significantly reduced. AI is a great mechanism for harnessing data to provide such insights that enable corrective adjustments, and it will radically transform the monitoring component of project management.
The initiating and closing components of project management, which usually are documentation-heavy, could benefit from generative AI. Generative AI can learn from past initiation and closing documentation to generate documentation specific to a particular organization or project. Generative AI and other data analysis techniques are also likely to transform a significant part of project planning, although some aspects of planning (like finalizing requirements) would continue to require human involvement.
The execution component of project management may still require human intelligence to do the physical project work in most industries, especially in professions that are labor intensive. Gradually, even these industries may begin to incorporate AI as technology advances. For example, robots have firmly established themselves in performing work such as chip assembly and drone missions that was once performed by humans.
To summarize, the practice of project management will be transformed because AI will replace many project management tasks associated with initiating, planning, monitoring, and closing projects. Longer term, even some tasks associated with executing could be taken over by AI, especially the knowledge work of a project.
Changes in How Project Management Is Taught
Project management may be taught differently in the years ahead, given that AI will transform the perception and practice of project management. Universities will need to impart skills that do not merely enable students to perform real-time project management tasks, but to also explain and highlight how these tasks will very likely be assisted or even replaced by AI in the future. Better still, opportunities can be provided for students to perform some of today’s project management tasks using AI, to enhance their efficiency. University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), has started to introduce AI into its project management curriculum. For example, AI techniques are addressed in the context of improving the reliability of commonly used project management estimation methods. Instructional avenues should be created to enable students to acquire higher-level project management and business skills. As AI expands, students must add other skills to justify a full-time position and bring a level of experience and credibility to the work they will perform in their organizations.
In conclusion, although AI will transform project management and automate many project management tasks, it will very likely create even more new, exciting, and impactful project management jobs that generate far greater value for organizations and society. Universities can play a defining role in this transformative shift by imparting the new skills that students will need to thrive in tomorrow’s workplace.
Reference on this webpage to any third-party entity or product does not constitute or imply endorsement by UMGC nor does it constitute or imply endorsement of UMGC by the third party.
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