January, 26th 2023 – Reading time: 5 minutes

Artificial intelligences are becoming more and more common in companies and in our everyday life. Whether automatic, customer-specific purchase recommendations in online trading, autonomous driving, chat bots in customer service or predictive maintenance to prevent production downtimes. There are already a large number of use cases in which Artificial Intelligence is already being used successfully today.
This raises the question why project management in companies is still almost completely unaffected by artificial intelligence?

Every project manager knows the situation. Having just left a meeting, the project manager actually has to prepare and conduct the next meeting. This often leaves no time for updating the project plans. As the project progresses, it is possible that the project plan will not be maintained at all.

Project Management produces a lot of data an AI could use

Especially the project planning and the regular tracking of the project progress offer best conditions for algorithms. The areas described generate a lot of data that an algorithm can use. In addition, project planning and project controlling are often highly complex, which the project manager must deal with. There is usually no time for the project manager to solve this complexity, such as constantly adjusting the allocation of resources to the constantly changing challenges or adjusting the project due to changing requirements. In addition, decisions made on the basis of such high complexity often lead to a high potential for error. The result is wrong decisions or sub-optimal use of project resources for the benefit of the overall project.

Despite good conditions and concrete problems, artificial intelligence has not yet been used in project management. Is it due to the missing data infrastructure or the existence of the data itself? Or is it due to the acceptance of project managers not wanting to use this highly potential technology?

AI will never be able to replace a project manager completely

If it is due to the acceptance and the concern that artificial intelligence could one day completely replace the job of the project manager, it can be confidently said that this will not happen very soon. Artificial intelligences have their strengths in the large computing power. With this enormous computing power, algorithms can analyze large amounts of data and solve complex problems in a very short time. In addition, they are able to make predictions based on the analyzed data, which a human being would not be able to do. At least not in a comparable time and precision.

However, what artificial intelligence cannot achieve is empathy, strategy and creativity. Which are fundamental characteristics in the project business. Alone these few examples show that the goal must be to use AI’s to support and complement human activities in a meaningful way. When artificial intelligences take over administrative tasks, this means that project managers will be able to concentrate more on the actual core of their existence for themselves and project teams in the future. Namely the creative solution of technological challenges.

Shorter and more reliable projects

No matter the reason that artificial intelligence is not yet being used in project management, action should be taken as soon as possible. Those who deal with the topic early, start with small steps and create acceptance among project managers and also in the project team, will have a decisive advantage on the market in the future. Early generation of important and high-quality data on which artificial intelligence can be based in order to make algorithm-based decisions, will lead to projects being completed faster and more reliably. Shorter and more reliable projects automatically mean lower costs in personnel-intensive development projects.

We help you to use AI for your Project Management

We at INVENSITY work together with our AI experts in the field of project management to develop solutions for our customers. Our focus lies on a flexible, module-based solution that can be adapted to the respective tool landscape of our customers. We analyze the existing data infrastructure as well as the data management system and prepare the data for the use of artificial intelligence. Furthermore, we train all project members in the use of artificial intelligence. Get in touch with us!

Here you can find the full article (German).