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The ease with which knowledge seekers and workers are utilizing this transformative technology is remarkable. For example, my tenth-grade daughter is using generative AI (GenAI) to research and write her Subject Enrichment Activity reports, while my wife, a middle school teacher, has been creating lesson plans using the technology. It seems I am catching up with them (and many others) in the race to become AI-literate. This has led me to explore how AI can be applied to my field of work—project management.
AI tools promise to significantly enhance the quality, coverage, efficiency, and speed of delivery for project professionals. These tools can act as learned assistants, supporting project managers with extensive knowledge and best practices. AI can help novices learn project management fundamentals and assist practitioners in completing tasks more efficiently. Experts can leverage AI tools to perform simulations and review scheduling options.
In the project planning phase, a project professional can use AI tools to generate artifacts such as a project charter, project management plan, and risk register based on a brief description of the project. It can also create a scope statement, develop a project schedule, and identify risks along with corresponding response strategies. It will be interesting to see how resource allocation and task assignments can be done with its help.
During project execution, an AI assistant can record meeting minutes and generate action items. Examples cited in Generative AI Overview for Project Managers course, suggest that it can also perform schedule and cost calculations, such as earned value analysis. By automating repetitive tasks like aggregating status updates and generating project status reports, AI frees up the project manager’s time to focus on team development and stakeholder engagement.
As challenges arise, AI promises to provide recommendations for various project situations, such as scope creep or schedule overruns, and suggest ways to bring the project back on track. With the right inputs, it can even determine budget implications of increasing scope or extending the timeline.
I have experimented with ChatGPT’s ability to generate planning artifacts, and I must say I am impressed with the quality and comprehensiveness of the content it produces. The key to getting Ai to provide relevant output is providing appropriate inputs (a.k.a prompts). In future posts, we will explore the features of AI tools, create prompts that can generate relevant outputs, eventually helping us become more capable, efficient, and adept at our jobs.