Project managers in the AI era: balancing tradition and technology

We recently had a conversation about how the traditional project management role has changed over the years. Some of us have been in the workplace for a while (ahem), and the cross-section of ages in our team meant our conversation was interesting. Many of us have experienced a huge step change over the last decades, and it’s only speeding up.  

Some examples we came up with that highlight how far ‘project management’ as we know it has come are: 

• Decision-making: where previously this felt quite centralised, modern project management favours the empowerment of individuals to make data or knowledge-driven decisions within their area of expertise. 
• Collaboration: was never as cross-functional as it is now – there’s still some way to go, yes, but there’s been a huge improvement. In 2024, project teams comprise individuals from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, and we have various tools and platforms that help us collaborate seamlessly across the globe. 
• Documentation: do you remember when everything was backed up on a tape? Nothing was in the cloud – you couldn’t work (easily) from abroad – how far we’ve come! Documentation is now digital, easily accessible from anywhere and updated in real time.  
• Communication: covid certainly pressed fast-forward on communication capability. In the olden days (!) communication channels were more formal, often relying on meetings and memos. Nowadays we have project management tools and new and emerging software that facilitates streamlined communication, document sharing, and real-time collaboration among team members, wherever they are in the world. 

Throw in AI, and we’ve got the potential to significantly enhance the capabilities of project managers and traditional project management methods even more. How? Of course, in this circumstance we thought the best person (thing? ChatBot?) to ask was AI itself.  

We posed this question:  

How do you think AI will help support project managers and traditional project management methods?  

It answered with reams of information as you can imagine; data analysis, risk management, resource optimisation and so much more. But to summarise, this is what it said (in its own words!): 

“Overall, AI technologies have the potential to augment the capabilities of project managers and improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and success rate of traditional project management methods. However, it’s essential for project managers to understand how to leverage AI tools effectively and integrate them into their existing workflows to realise these benefits fully.” 

Isn’t AI optimistic? Such a lot that it can improve. At smart/tasking we’re all about efficiency, effectiveness and rising success rates – and automation is our bread and butter, so exploring the ways AI can help us to help our clients improve their services is top of our list. 

But we believe success lies in not only understanding but finding the right balance. Part of what makes smart/tasking successful is that we believe that true change comes from leveraging people, processes and technology – not one over another but all three. Human touch is essential for adapting to unforeseen challenges and changes, and relationship building, for example.  

So, whilst AI has a lot to offer with streamlining and augmenting various aspects of project management, it’s crucial to maintain a balance with human involvement – especially as we test these somewhat murky waters learning about AI capabilities. Finding the right balance means that we’re using the strengths of both AI and humans, leading to more successful, resilient and ethical outcomes.