Artificial Intelligence in Project Management Webinar Ricardo Vargas and Antonio Nieto-Rodrigues

Summary

In this insightful discussion, Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez and Ricardo Vargas explore how AI will disrupt traditional project management practices. They delve into areas where AI can significantly impact project selection, prioritization, planning, reporting, testing, and redefining the project manager's role. Through interactive polls and thought-provoking questions, they engage the audience in envisioning a future where AI augments human capabilities, emphasizing the need to embrace this technological shift. The session culminates with an exciting proposal for a masterclass that combines cutting-edge AI concepts with hands-on project management training, aiming to equip professionals with the skills to thrive in this transformative era.

Takeaways

• 👨‍💻 AI and machine learning are expected to significantly disrupt and automate many aspects of project management, including selection/prioritization, planning, reporting, and testing.
• 📊 Polls conducted during the discussion indicated that most attendees believe 40-60% of current project management practices could be taken over by AI in the near future.
• 🤖 AI can provide predictive insights, automated planning, virtual assistance, and advanced testing capabilities to streamline project workflows.
• 🧠 While AI can handle many administrative and operational tasks, human project managers will still play a crucial role in strategic decision-making, stakeholder management, and leadership.
• 📈 Embracing AI is seen as an opportunity to offload tedious tasks and focus on higher-value activities, potentially improving project success rates.
• 💡 The presenters envision developing a comprehensive "masterclass" on leveraging AI in project management, partnering with business schools for accreditation.
• 📂 Data quality and cleansing remain significant challenges for effective AI implementation, though newer AI techniques can help fill data gaps.
• 🔄 AI's impact is expected to extend to agile methodologies, potentially automating portions of the development lifecycle.
• ⚠️ Addressing AI bias and ethical considerations is crucial to ensure fair and unbiased decision-making processes.
• 🌐 The discussion generated numerous thought-provoking questions from attendees, highlighting the need for further exploration and research in this rapidly evolving field.

Q & A

What are the main areas of project management that are expected to be disrupted by AI according to the speakers?

The speakers highlighted six main areas that they believe will be disrupted by AI: 1) Better selection and prioritization of projects, 2) Support for project management offices, 3) Improved and faster project planning and reporting, 4) Virtual project assistance, 5) Advanced testing systems and software, and 6) The role of project managers itself.

How can AI help in selecting and prioritizing projects?

AI systems can analyze a large amount of data and use algorithms to predict the success, resource utilization, and alignment with strategy for potential projects. This can help organizations choose the best mix of projects to pursue.

What is the potential impact of AI on the role of project management offices (PMOs)?

The speakers suggest that AI could automate many of the administrative and reporting tasks currently handled by PMOs, such as compliance monitoring and exception tracking. AI could potentially replace the need for traditional reports if it can provide real-time insights and answers to project stakeholders.

How can AI improve project planning and reporting processes?

AI systems could pre-populate project plans, tasks, risks, and resource requirements based on historical data and learnings. Additionally, AI-powered virtual assistants could aid project managers in planning and reporting by providing insights and recommendations.

What is the role of virtual project assistants mentioned by the speakers?

The speakers envision AI-powered virtual assistants that can act as advisors to project managers, providing insights and recommendations based on the project's data and the assistant's knowledge of project management best practices.

How can AI help in software testing and development?

The speakers highlight that AI can be used to automate software testing before release, potentially reducing the time and effort required for testing. Additionally, AI systems like ChatGPT can assist in generating code, enabling more user-friendly software development processes.

How do the speakers see the future role of project managers in an AI-driven environment?

The speakers believe that project managers should embrace AI as an ally rather than seeing it as a threat. They suggest that AI can handle many administrative tasks, allowing project managers to focus more on strategic thinking, stakeholder management, and leadership roles.

What challenges do the speakers mention regarding the adoption of AI in project management?

The speakers highlight the importance of having clean, high-quality data as a significant challenge in adopting AI for project management. They also mention the need for investment and dedicated projects to successfully implement AI solutions.

What potential initiative do the speakers mention regarding AI in project management?

The speakers express their ambition to develop a master class or training program focused on AI in project management. They aim to create a comprehensive and high-quality program in partnership with a business school, potentially involving Harvard Business Review as well.

How do the speakers view the impact of AI on agile project management approaches?

The speakers acknowledge that AI will likely impact agile approaches and DevOps processes, as these are closely tied to technology development. They suggest that while traditional agile practices may be automated by AI, the agile mindset and human aspects will still be relevant and may need to evolve.

Outlines

00:00

👋 Welcome and Introduction

Antonio welcomes the audience and introduces himself and Ricardo. He expresses his excitement to be partnering with Ricardo for this discussion on an HBR article they recently published. He acknowledges the challenges in project management, such as low success rates, and highlights the need to improve project delivery. Antonio then shares a poll on the percentage of current project management practices that could be disrupted by AI.

05:01

🌐 The Current State of Project Management

Antonio discusses the appalling performance rates of projects, with most being delivered late or failing. He emphasizes the need to step up and ensure that only 20% of projects fail instead of 80%. He highlights the lack of maturity in project management technology compared to operational systems like ERPs. The goal is to double the success rate and have an immediate impact on financial, sustainability, and diversity outcomes.

10:01

🤖 AI Applications in Project Management

Ricardo introduces six aspects of project management that could be disrupted by AI: project selection and prioritization, support for the project management office (PMO), faster planning and reporting, virtual project assistance, advanced software testing, and the evolving role of project managers. He provides examples of how AI can be applied in each area, such as using neural networks for project selection and AI-powered recruitment platforms.

15:04

📊 AI for Project Planning and Reporting

Ricardo discusses the potential of AI in project planning and reporting. He questions the need for traditional reports if AI assistants like ChatGPT can provide real-time information by integrating external data and a company's proprietary data. He also shares an example of a chatbot called Pmoto that can automatically populate project plans based on user inputs.

20:05

🚀 AI for Software Testing and the Evolving Project Manager Role

Ricardo highlights the potential of AI in advanced software testing and the evolving role of project managers. He emphasizes that AI will not replace project managers but will serve as a strong ally, enabling them to focus on strategic thinking, leadership, and soft skills. The future project managers will be those who embrace AI and combine human skills with technology for better project delivery.

25:07

🗳️ Audience Poll on Disruptive AI Applications

Ricardo conducts a poll to gather audience opinions on which areas of project management will be most disrupted by AI. The options include project selection and prioritization, PMO support, planning and reporting, virtual assistance, software testing, and others. The poll results show that improved planning and reporting, followed by virtual project assistance, are considered the most likely areas to be disrupted.

30:08

💻 Data Challenges and AI Adoption

Antonio discusses the challenges of data cleansing and preparation, which can account for up to 80% of the effort in AI implementations. He mentions ongoing research on machine learning algorithms for project prioritization and shares examples of AI-powered project monitoring tools. Antonio also introduces the idea of developing a masterclass in project management, partnering with a business school, and involving experts from various domains.

35:10

🤔 Addressing Concerns About AI and Project Management Careers

Antonio and Ricardo address audience concerns about the impact of AI on project management careers, particularly for young professionals. They emphasize that AI should be seen as an ally rather than an enemy, as it will enable project managers to focus on higher-value tasks and strategic thinking. They provide examples of how AI is already being integrated into agile methodologies and human performance management.

40:12

❓ Q&A: AI Maturity, Data Quality, and Integration with Existing Frameworks

Antonio and Ricardo respond to audience questions related to evaluating the maturity of AI tools for project management, challenges in collecting clean data, and the integration of AI into existing project management frameworks like the PMBOK® Guide. They acknowledge the lack of maturity models for AI in project management but highlight the potential for AI to complement existing practices and address data quality issues through unsupervised learning.

45:15

🔮 The Future of AI in Project Management

Antonio and Ricardo share their vision for the future of AI in project management. They discuss the potential of AI to predict project success without relying solely on historical data, drawing inspiration from AI systems like AlphaGo that learn through trial and error. They also mention exploring unsupervised learning approaches for project planning and execution.

50:16

🙏 Closing Remarks and Call to Action

Antonio and Ricardo conclude the session by thanking the audience and encouraging them to subscribe to their respective newsletters and connect on LinkedIn. They provide a QR code and link to download the presentation slides and promise to record and publish answers to additional audience questions.

Keywords

💡Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, particularly computer systems. In the context of the video, AI is presented as a disruptive technology that could potentially automate various aspects of project management processes, such as project selection, planning, and reporting. The video explores the potential impact of AI on project management practices, with examples like using AI for candidate screening and pre-populating project tasks.

💡Project Management

Project management is the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing out work to achieve specific goals and meet success criteria. The video discusses how AI could revolutionize various aspects of project management, such as project selection and prioritization, supporting project management offices (PMOs), improving planning and reporting processes, providing virtual project assistance, and even potentially managing entire projects autonomously in the future.

💡Project Selection and Prioritization

Project selection and prioritization refer to the process of evaluating and choosing which projects or initiatives to undertake based on their strategic alignment, potential benefits, and available resources. The video suggests that AI could be used to analyze large amounts of data and model scenarios to recommend the optimal mix of projects that align with an organization's strategy and have the highest likelihood of success.

💡Project Management Office (PMO)

A Project Management Office (PMO) is a centralized unit or department within an organization that oversees and supports project management practices, methodologies, and standards. The video proposes that AI could support PMOs by automating reporting, compliance checks, and other administrative tasks, freeing project managers to focus on more strategic and value-adding activities.

💡Project Planning and Reporting

Project planning involves defining the scope, activities, resources, and schedules required to complete a project successfully. Reporting involves communicating project status, progress, and issues to stakeholders. The video suggests that AI could be used to pre-populate project plans based on user inputs and historical data, as well as automate various reporting tasks, such as generating status updates and identifying potential risks or delays.

💡Virtual Project Assistance

Virtual project assistance refers to the use of AI-powered virtual assistants or chatbots to support project managers in their day-to-day tasks. The video discusses the potential for AI-powered virtual assistants to provide real-time advice, answer project-related queries, and even assist with decision-making by analyzing project data and historical information.

💡Software Testing

Software testing is the process of evaluating software applications or systems to identify defects, verify functionality, and ensure quality standards are met. The video highlights the potential for AI to revolutionize software testing by automating various testing processes, such as generating test cases, executing test scenarios, and identifying defects or issues more efficiently than manual testing methods.

💡Project Manager's Role

The role of a project manager involves leading and coordinating project activities, managing resources, and ensuring successful project delivery. The video explores how the project manager's role might evolve with the integration of AI, shifting from administrative tasks to more strategic and value-adding activities, such as stakeholder management, decision-making, and leveraging AI capabilities to drive project success.

💡Data Cleansing

Data cleansing, or data cleaning, is the process of identifying and correcting or removing inaccurate, incomplete, or irrelevant data from a dataset. The video emphasizes the importance of data cleansing as a crucial step in leveraging AI for project management, as the quality and accuracy of the data used to train AI models significantly impact the reliability of their outputs and recommendations.

💡Agile

Agile refers to a set of project management methodologies and practices that emphasize iterative development, flexibility, and continuous improvement. The video raises the question of how AI might impact agile approaches, such as Scrum, and whether AI could potentially automate certain agile processes or enhance agile practices in software development projects.

Highlights

AI can help with better selection and prioritization of projects by predicting success rates, resource utilization, and suggesting the optimal mix of projects to align with strategy.

AI can support the project management office by automating repetitive tasks like generating reports, tracking compliance, and triggering alerts based on predefined conditions.

AI can improve and accelerate project planning, definition, and reporting by pre-populating tasks, risks, resources, and other elements based on the project's objectives and data.

Virtual AI assistants can act as advisors, leveraging knowledge of the project and project management principles to guide project managers.

AI can enhance software testing by automatically generating and executing test cases, leading to faster and more thorough testing.

The role of project managers will evolve, focusing more on strategic thinking, stakeholder management, and leadership, while delegating repetitive tasks to AI.

Embracing AI as an ally and combining human skills with AI-powered technology can significantly improve project success rates and value delivery.

Data cleansing and preparation are crucial challenges, often taking up to 80% of the time when implementing AI solutions for project management.

AI can potentially impact agile approaches, such as automating DevOps tasks and supporting scrum work, allowing agile to evolve to a higher level.

There is a need for a maturity model or framework to evaluate the readiness and effectiveness of AI tools in supporting project management.

AI can overcome data gaps and biases through unsupervised learning, exploring innovative solutions beyond historical data patterns.

The speakers aim to create a masterclass or executive education program focused on AI in project management, partnering with a business school for accreditation.

Successful project delivery rates are alarmingly low, with 95% of projects being delivered late, highlighting the need for AI-driven improvements.

AI has the potential to automate up to 80% of a typical project manager's daily tasks, according to Gartner's predictions.

Adopting AI in project management requires strategic considerations, such as data availability, organizational readiness, and ethical implications.

Transcripts

hello everyone hello Antonio how are you

my friend hello Ricardo hello everyone

yeah it's wonderful to to be with you

and thank you everyone for joining us

today I I need to say we we oh we just

delayed a little bit the beginning

because uh we we had an a really a big

interest on on the workshop and due to

the limitations of of the the platform

and everything so we just decided

something like 10 minutes ago to

broadcast this so it's on LinkedIn on

YouTube on Facebook and even on Twitch

so in all these platforms you can watch

uh this discussion uh live uh and we are

very happy Antonio thank you very much

for the partnership on on the article so

what do we aim here uh is um to discuss

a little bit more about the article we

we recently published on hbr and and try

to Envision a little bit more how the

future will look like and please feel

free to use the Q a uh to talk for some

technical glitch here the chat is not

available for the attendees we try to

sort out but we were unable to do that

so you can use your q a also to

introduce yourself and just to to say at

least we can see where you come from and

we can use this uh to refer to all of

you so I want now to

start sharing uh our our slide deck and

this slide deck will be available uh to

all of you uh at the end I will share

with you the QR code so you can you can

uh take a look and download it okay so

um the main reason for this is the

article we recently published and and

this article try to address

um

some of the trends that we see are are

coming and are coming

really fast and and are coming in

I I don't want to say in a scary way but

are coming uh to surprise us and to

change a lot how do we see things and

and this is exactly what we want will it

be virtual assistants uh will it be the

support of our project planning or AI

will manage projects

and these are questions that we really

want to discuss uh with with you today

and I just want to introduce I don't

want to spend too much time you know I'm

passionate about project management all

my career is about project management

from on different sectors I had the

chance uh to be the director for

infrastructure and project management at

the United Nations I had a chance to

write 16 books in the field I have a

quite popular podcast for those who

listen my voice for a lot of time and my

main work is supporting organizations in

capital projects uh and also I do some

works you'll see later on Venture

Capital mainly on this technology uh

space so I want uh Now to turn into my

dear friend Antonio so he can introduce

himself and start the talk

thank you Ricardo and thank you everyone

for joining it's uh I I just love to be

always with Ricardo and and we always

have great conversations so we thought

why not write in an article for hbr why

don't we create something for the

community so it's today it's a major

step for I hope for our partnership

Ricardo and I'm really glad to have so

many friends on the call I see David

Carr uh Garrett and and uh to have so

many friends thank you for joining I

think one thing that is important in

this space especially in project

management is a lot of co-creation some

people can come with an idea but if we

don't work all together towards making

these changes happen it will never

happen so I think Ricardo me we propose

always new things and new ideas but it's

the power of the community PMI and

beyond that makes these things happening

I think one thing I I just don't will go

not into my career you I think many of

you know but I think what I've noticed

and Ricardo you know that too is that

finally people at the top of

organizations are recognizing the power

of projects the importance of project

management for dealing with this world

driven by change the the project economy

so it's just great to be in this space I

think we have worked hard to get there

many people who are in the corn many

people who are not in the call but it's

just great when you get calls from CEO

and they tell you listen we have a

problem here we have too many projects

or we cannot deal with these

Transformations we need help we need to

build project management competencies

agile competencies so I think I just

wanted to acknowledge that and recognize

that from from for the community who's

here in this calling and and we're all

working together so and today a topic

which we're both very passionate which

is the artificial intelligence of of

course and and somehow I think Ricardo

you mentioned that we it's not a topic

that we really have addressed in the

project management world I I was

chairman of PMI in 2016. I I was very

interested on on Bridging the Gap with

strategy we launched brightline but

artificial intelligence was never really

discussed and I think it's just coming

but very slowly not in other Industries

like healthcare construction cars where

AI is so present in project management

we have not been very active talking

about that and I think this is time to

accelerate that and and make it uh

something positive something where we

can bring this change to the table we

can say listen a machine can do part of

our work we can do much more in other

spaces so

um if you go to the next slide Ricardo

um this is something that we annoys me a

lot as as somebody that speaks around

the value of project management when you

see the the really appalling uh

performance rates of projects and again

I think we all agree that it's hard to

measure success there's no standard way

to look at drug sales I always talk

about the triple constraints benefits or

success and then the benefit success so

there's two types of successes but still

any any

research that we find through PMI

brightline McKinsey uh Professor from

Oxford recently with his big book big

Ideas uh also the numbers are really bad

it's like 95 percent of the projects are

delivered on on delay so I think we need

to step up this is another area with

Ricardo and I talk a lot is how can we

ensure that just 20 of the projects fail

but not 80. so I think that's where it's

a big issue for me in this profession

that we need to find if we are credible

now in the senior leaders face but we

need to be more by delivering more value

and faster so I think this is a bit

setting the scene of AI is also AI can

help to do that hey I can help us we

should see as a as a mechanist for us to

make better projects to deliver them

better more successfully I think there's

one more slide before we move yeah so I

think if you look at I've been doing

project management forever like most of

you and it stress you look at the

operational side of any business and you

see erps and you see a lot of data

warehousing and you see uh reporting on

the spot and and I get very jealous why

operations is so good and they have one

source of Truth and and why in project

management what is such a mess you can

have excels power points on people PPM

systems they did help a bit into that

space But it is never really mature so I

think the the maturity in technology in

the space of project management is still

very very low

and the next slide so this is a bit set

in the scene

and my vision which I think Ricardo

shares as well is that if we put

ourselves a target of let's double let's

let's make sure that uh if we improve

our success rate by 25 this is immediate

impact this is immediate benefit it's

not that we need to invest more we just

need to do them better and you have

impact in in terms of financial but also

in terms of impact sustainability

diversity so I think this is something

like we need to stick in our uh targets

for the next two three years to do that

and then well I think we can really be

very very successful in this space

and I think we have a small pool here so

we wanted to make this as interactive as

possible we'll share a few slides but

then we'll have polls so you can see

here the first one it should have pop up

in your screen so what person touch of

the current project management slash pmo

practice would be disrupted by AI will

be kind of taken over uh will be done

in the next years twenty percent forty

percent sixty percent eighty percent

hundred percent

100 would be nice right we don't need to

do I always talk about self-driving cars

but self-driving projects

why not

then we

Antonio I'm just waiting here we have

already uh hundreds of answers but it's

moving very fast so if you wait 10 more

seconds uh before I close the pool okay

I closed yeah I can see the results you

cannot yet but not yeah but it's fun you

you'll see it's fun it's fun

okay I'm I'm closing okay I'm closing

the pool now it's closed okay and now I

will share the results

ball to you Antonio

okay I think I'm glad to see that I

think there's uh

the interesting there's people who think

about 20 only and a few seven percent 23

and we have already 400 people in the

court uh 100 I'm curious to hear that

but the majorities in between

um so 60 which is quite a lot imagine

half of our week will be done and

automated through machine learning

artificial intelling that's a lot one of

the biggest reference and I'm closing

down here just my last slide before

moving to Ricardo is Gardner so Gardner

was the first one that brought this into

the scene I know PMI has been looking

into that as well and this is already

three years old but Garner said at that

time eighty percent eighty percent of

your day eighty percent of four day four

days of five uh could be done by machine

so that's scary that is saying okay what

I'm going to do I can keep myself busy

for a day but what I'm going to be doing

so nothing that's what make a lot of

noise this this announcement by Garner I

I think there is some true in this

number because we do still a lot of

manual work administrative work

controlling work that machine learning

can easily do but I think we need to see

this as an opportunity imagine you get

rid of all this boring work and you have

just a nice part the stakeholder

management so the next section and

passing back to Ricardo is based on the

article where are the areas that we've

seen this is not just prediction we have

seen changes happening and and there's

some more or less but back to you

Ricardo okay thank you thank you Antonio

uh and it's it's interesting I just went

before we have people from everywhere

you you cannot see but from California

to Bangladesh from Brazil Canada

everywhere so thank you very much for

joining us uh we already have series of

questions here that we are planning to

address but what I want is to try to

share with you six aspects of the the

project man management that we truly

believe will be disrupted uh and and the

upper coming area uh years uh so let me

go through each of them from better

selection and prioritization of projects

to the support of the project management

office to speed up on the planning

process project definitions virtual

project assistance advancing testing

systems and and finally and probably the

most disruptive one it's uh how will be

our role as a project managers uh in in

this environment so the first one it's

the use of artificial intelligence to

help you to select and prioritize so

imagine one thing uh

if we want to understand what AI is

about AI is just a process that take a

huge amount of data and through some

algorithms try to make sense and try to

create patterns that could indicate to

us a trend or or an approach so what

happens you can put your candidate

projects in an AI system and

they can predict

success

in terms of

but fulfillment

in terms of

results in terms of resource utilization

and give you back

that suggested mix or of projects to

help in your strategy so you can use

tools combining like ahp

modeling simulation big data in all of

these to help you to do this I have a

lift I want just to tell you one thing

in 2015 I published an article about the

use of neural networks on the project

selection and prioritization this was

eight years ago these was published at

the PMI Congress and at that time I used

X L and I use a tool called Palisade at

risk to help me to simulate what would

be the best set of portfolio of of

projects and we use neural networks and

neural networks is a subset of what AI

accounts and what is the difference

between 2015 and now that because today

it's widely available today you have

much more chance to get the information

you need and to use this analytical uh

aspect coming from this AI tools that

will help you to select much faster and

in a much reliable way

ah

one example I want to to say I published

yesterday my newsletter and and one of

the aspects of the newsletter was this

case Highview and Highview is a platform

it's an existent and leading platform

for Recruitment and do you know what

surprised me iview is all artificial

intelligence based it means

all these screaming of candidates

even the

interview by a human being on the other

side it's not someone interviewing you

it's a machine that interviews you and

and look what is incredible this machine

could perceive if you are a good fit or

a bad fit

however on the top of that comes a

massive challenge because I always say

this

uh AI has as much bias as any human

being that is feeding AI with

information

so Highview had to stop uh I think one

year one year and a half ago the facial

analysis of candidates because they

discover that it had it had bias the way

you smile the way you position the way

you shake your hands could be

uh good or not so good and and this is

full of bias against uh different

candidates and this is a true case you

can see this on a Wired Magazine and

this so this is a use of selecting

candidates for example uh in the project

environment

the second one this is obvious support

project management office one thing that

I always tell people is that I don't

believe at all that is our role as a pmo

or as a project managers to Just Produce

paperwork you know from templates

to a report and everything so AI can

support that I have a very big question

that I want to ask you because I don't

have the answer is that

will we need reports in the future

do we need that because why do we do a

report we do a report because we expect

that people will read and make decisions

but if imagine if I have an oracle uh

let's let's suppose like chat GPT that

everybody and you as a boss you can just

go and chat and say

is this project on budget and chat GPT

will not only look externally but will

look all your poor and this is exactly

where the big business on AI is for

software companies Microsoft just

released it that the connection between

chat GPT and Bing is not just a

coincidence or market share because what

will happen is that you will have

artificial intelligence servers in your

company doing and connecting external

information with your own proprietary

information to use as competitive

advantage and all these support on

compliance and everything will be done

by the project management office and the

project management office can set

triggers that will create a red light or

a trigger or an exception if something

happens or if there is a trend that

something will happen based on AI

the next one is improve at faster pros

and definition planning and Reporting

it's a pre-populated project for example

you give ideas to Ai and AI will

pre-populate the tasks you should do the

relationships you may uh use the risks

you may face the type of resources it's

I I just want to do an analogy imagine

you with your Trello board and your

parallel board is auto populate or you

with your Microsoft processing your

Microsoft Project is completely out of

populated with that and I had this

experience because I was one of the

founders and and of the Venture pmoto

and pmoto was created and supported by

Microsoft and it's a chatbot that does

exactly that using AI you have a chatbot

like chat GPT and you say I need a

project and then you start talking and

then uh appear more ask you why is this

project about when do you want to start

which kind of objectives do you want

what is this and then pmoto populate the

project for you with all information and

check some of your assumptions so this

is just one example of how you can do

this and use this connecting this third

topic with the fourth as like an

assistant at someone imagine you having

someone in your back with the full

knowledge of your project and full

knowledge of project management helping

you being an advisor and an assistant to

you so this is an example and the

example of the pmoto is machine learning

enable doing this all the time and it

learns with time so if you fix and

correct the next time the same mistake

will not happen again and so it's a

learning uh algorithm that will learn

over and over so when you if you use it

more it will get better and better

number five Advanced testing system and

software and this is one of the areas

I'm talking more for those working in

project management in the I.T sector

this will be a big big big thing because

you will be able able to use AI to test

your system to test your software before

you release it and and this is one of

the key areas just for you to have an

idea chat GPT that is now mainstream is

one of the best software developers you

may find because if you write a a a a

send an ID an app for a python code

there is a good chance that you will

receive a decent code I'm not saying a

perfect but the decent code for you to

use so all of these it it will reduce

dramatically and it will improve

dramatically too at the concept of what

we are talking inside PMI of the citizen

developer process it's where I would say

it the development of technology and

software will become a far more user

friendly and people will be able to

build software to build Solutions like

piling up Lego bricks and this is I I I

would say one of the biggest Trends and

one of the trends with the biggest

impact

and last but not least it's a new role

for us and I I will I'm talking here on

behalf of Antonio and myself because you

know we are on on this field for uh

quite a long time and and you know I

remember in when I did my PMP in 1999 it

was about the budget time and this you

know I you don't care too much about

what was the outcome of the project and

this

completely uh today uh on on the

position of the project manager so what

what it's it's the key

the project managers they need to

embrace this change and I know I know

sometimes it's scary because it it is

when I use chat GPT for the first time I

said what is that but but it's a

different we need now to understand that

there is still a lot of things that

machines are not able to do uh many of

the soft skills leadership but some of

the Strategic thinking some of the

feelings this is

all about project manager project

manager is not about preparing report

and sending complaints up and down and

being the message it's far more than

that and and the project manager if you

are listening to what I'm saying the

project manager that will make

disruptive difference in the future are

those who use this technology as strong

allies

to move forward

and so combining this soft human

approach human skills with a very solid

technology supporting and this will make

a massive difference for all of us this

is why for example Antonio and I we we

use a lot of time writing this because

we need to plant this seed on every

single brain of every single project

manager to think that AI is here to stay

and we need to embrace that in order to

really move our profession to the next

level uh and I have a second question uh

among these items like what do you think

are the ones uh you you believe that

will be mostly disrupted so I will put

the second pool here and I wanted to see

uh what what do you think of that okay

what do you think of that so let me go

so on the second so I would love that

you share with us your perceptions on

that uh very quickly so

um do we see that it will be for better

selection and prioritization uh do you

believe that it will be support on the

project management office or it's

improved planning capability or if it's

virtual or a software testing or or even

other things so I want just to listen to

you so

just quickly and and it's very important

that you share this uh Antonio one thing

that I just just a technical thing we

need just to read the answers because

for those on LinkedIn and YouTube they

cannot see the results of the pool so

just just for for you to to do so I will

read the results so I will give more

10 seconds and and look it's not it's

not an easy answer okay uh

but if you had to guess one what would

be okay

so let me okay so I will end now okay I

will and now

oh there's still people voting voting

voting I'm I'm planning to handle and

then a lot of votes come popping up so

let me okay now I will end the pool okay

and I'll share so the results better

selection and prioritization 14 support

project management office 14

improve at faster approach and

definition planning and Reporting 34 and

the winner virtual project assistance 19

Advanced testing system and software 17

and ordered two percent so uh the

leading is improving I think I I need to

agree with you on my perception it's uh

this will be I would say materialize it

very fast I feel that this will happen

very fast for for most of the companies

and when I say very fast it's we should

expect this year but to have a lot of

Solutions on helping these project

definition planning and reporting that

one thing that was a little bit of

surprise for me is the advanced testing

and system I was expecting a higher

number but 70 percent is still a lot of

people so look uh it would be great when

we do this again Antonio in two years

from now and then we just check the

reality of of what happened okay uh

Antonio back to you on data and people

uh to make a future a reality thank you

Ricardo and I just wanted briefly to

touch upon a couple of points that

Ricardo mentioned

um I I done quite some research on all

these domains and and seen uh some

startups working on that I'm actually uh

developing a machine learning with a

professor in Canada uh Paul uh who is

one of the leading uh

experts in AI in in in this and we're

working on a prioritization selection

application it has 90 criteria so I'm

gathering data for 50 projects and so I

hope that

um

also I'll come back to that so that is

ongoing and I hope in a couple of weeks

we'll be able to test it I've seen a

software that you can press a button and

has a thousands of WBS and can create a

a good plan in five minutes instead of

to 20 weeks because of all the big data

and data and knowledge they've gathered

I've seen another software that is used

by president macron in France

for watching all the all the projects

public spending projects in front

there's thousands and he can see in a

second which projects are late or not

um

so on the risk side as well so my my

thinking and we still need to discuss

that Ricardo but we could have another

session like this one and deep dive in

and bring in this Technologies to you so

that we can also learn from that so

that's a an ongoing learning process

it's not just one one of AI session for

me just to finish when they asked me how

do you see technology in project

management over the years in the future

I always refer to uh Maps when you're

driving in a car with the maps you know

we had three big faces one was the paper

maps the mission lamp maps that were

huge and it was fun to write but it was

not very efficient then we had the GPS

which is yeah much easier and still you

can play a role but if you don't want

then you just go and then you have and

you start seeing the self-driving cars

so if you project that and you reflect

on projects uh my view is that in

projects we're still with the maps right

and it's not very efficient we don't

have yet the GPS and we're far off of

the self-driving projects but we should

be thinking like that could be the god

self-driving projects and what do we do

there to add value which I think there's

a lot so I'm not just saying we don't

need this phone I think we need it and

more than before but I think maybe that

technology here we're still very early

we're still with the paper maps and here

just briefly on the data is one the

biggest challenges Ricardo if you can go

to the next like

so you do need data and and if you want

to go serious on this the research we've

made is around 80 percent of the time at

least in the first phase it's about data

cleansing data preparation I've I've

done that for 50 big projects uh that

I'm doing for this machine learning

prioritization algorithms and it's it's

painful it's not easy for getting data

of 90 criterias from cine Opera House

Empire State Building and uh but I think

in the end once you have that phase what

I've seen is that machine learning also

learns to fill in the gaps so you don't

need to have everything for everything

now these algorithms are super smart and

they will predict data they will create

data based on a good foundation so I

think that makes our our job easier and

the next slide I think it just talks a

bit about

questions that we put in the paper of a

hardware Business Review

um about what you need to consider do

you want to embrace AI seriously I think

you can read this in the slides but it

is an investment it's a project I think

we are convinced that this is uh in in

the midterm something that we will see

everywhere but at the moment it's just

Pioneer companies that are investing in

this I'm not going to go through all

this you can read the slides you can

read the paper next slide please and

Ricardo

um

next slide

yeah and just to finish before q a so

one of the ideas that Ricardo and I have

is that we've done a lot we've done a

lot of trainings we've trained for big

corporates we've done a lot of business

school teaching Executive Education

um so brainstorming and and for me it's

always a passion you know Ricardo shares

the same passion of sharing and building

better project managers and making

everyone more confident and more

equipped and and I think there is always

the the level of the the training is not

always the the highest and Ricardo and I

thought that we could develop a master

class like the best masterclass in

project management

um ever bringing or thinking but not

only or thinking but some of our

contacts that we know in this space and

outside this space to kind of like a day

or two half days we still don't know the

format but I think uh and partner with a

business school so that we get an

accreditation so that you may can claim

that to your business and organization

but it's just a very big ambition that

we have and and making this the best of

the best training uh Master Class maybe

we can involve Harvard Business Review

so I don't know we just want to create

something unique uh talking about this

and that leads to also creating a

community of high level experienced

people so

um it's something that is in our minds

and we wanted to guess uh there's a

small part here to get a bit of feedback

whether this would make sense uh to any

of you and we'll come back with more

details but we don't want to wait too

much time we want to do it this summer

and have the first four but I think it's

part of the sharing that we need to

leave behind Ricardo myself and and it's

just something that I'm very very

excited

yeah we we what we we want I will just

stop sharing uh um what I want I will

look this idea came after the the some

ideas and some discussions between

Antonio myself and we would love just

wondering to hear from you what is your

take so we we are asking three questions

here about is this something interesting

or not at all uh about the duration

about the investment just to have a

feeling we don't have yet an answer for

that so this is why we would love to to

hear from you because you have this

interest so what do you think about that

the answers are Anonymous so if you can

just help us to figure out uh uh these

uh this uh these aspects uh if this

should be something of one day half a

day two days or or if you want something

different or

um it's something that you you don't

have interest it's just for us to to

feel and and then we will go look

Antonio just for your awareness we have

60 exact questions okay to be answered

so we will have to be a very fast trying

to to answer them uh to answer them and

if you uh have questions in the audience

please just uh just uh uh type your

answer we'll try to answer all of them

okay I I don't know but we'll do

too quickly sorry what I do usually when

there's too many questions is what we do

is we'll re we'll make a video you and

me answering the questions yes

we can do that we can do that and what I

want is just uh uh uh to uh to respect

your uh some of the the questions we

received so just some of them are are

super interesting so we can we can

discuss them uh uh here on this q a

before we we come to an end so look I

will just finish uh the the the pool so

thank you very much for your

contribution on on on that uh now

Antonio time for questions so okay put

here so the the first one uh from najib

uh is using AI in project management

implies delegating machines all the work

that is related to the way of working uh

in the PMI competence triangle so are we

giving up uh to machines uh the control

of that

so you can take that or okay no I don't

think so you you give a great question I

just went through like a 20 and they're

amazing and I see Alfonso butter oh no

it's nice yeah it's just really great

question I don't think so it's like

you're driving a car do you give the

control to the car well there's some

parts the engine you're not going to be

running the engine but at the end you're

still accountable you're still

responsible you're still the one that is

going to make the the most important

decisions but you're not the one running

the machine so partly yes we're going to

give some of this heavy duty tasks to AI

but not the accountability not the

direction not the decisions so we still

play a major role uh

so great question I think yeah and AI is

improving Antonio but it's not perfect

at all I use GPT to do uh uh uh to do

um uh for me um a critical path analysis

and it did wrong

and it was a simple one so you need uh

to have Supreme maybe in the future of

things will will improve but I agree

completely with you at the end uh you

are accountable for that okay you use

the machine to accelerate your your your

thoughts uh Alfonso uh wonderful to see

you I I see so many friends here most of

the young project managers they believe

AI will constrain their project

management career uh and he said I

explain it that is not true at all but I

would love to hear your opinion I can

take this one off phone so I look

look if you are young and you were

afraid of AI you have a big problem

because if you are at the end of your

career and you are afraid of AI I would

say oh okay I can unders but if you were

at the beginning oh my God because we

don't know what will happen in 20 years

so I truly uh believe that uh AI is is a

game changer I I love Richard davanni uh

a book about the new Industrial

Revolution because this is the same

thing that when I would say people in

the factories before the Industrial

Revolution thought that oh I will lose

my job no

it's just changing it's just changing

it's just change and it's already

changing for example as I said 20 years

ago project managers were expected to

deliver on time on budget you know if if

the product is irrelevant or useless

it's not your problem you receive from

my sponsor a request and you just

delivered that these used to be what uh

the role of the project manager and look

now so I think AI is a key Ally for

example I use you know Antonio the same

gave some examples so don't be because

if you see AI as your enemy then you

have two problems you have your problem

with perception of AI and AI itself so

don't do that okay it's not smart

uh look um

do you oh Dave Garrett Dave Garrett do

you think AI will have an impact on

agile approach the human parts of scrum

and Beyond if so wipe might it be

I love that David and thank you they for

being here

um

and for what you're doing with PMI I I

think that's a great question because we

always seen agile AI coming into the

traditional predictive project

management it's also going to be agile

and all these devops and and I think the

initial phase so I think yes absolutely

there's going to be impact in agile and

it's something that we've not covered

very much so I think that it's something

that we need to to go a bit deeper but

definitely I think there is a big

opportunity for doing a lot of the scrum

work and all the in the end agile is

very much related to Tech development

right so

um I'm sure there will be a very soon

that can do all these devops part

without any human intervention uh so the

agile maybe move somewhere a bit further

down the line and I think we started

embracing agent in other parts of

project management and bigger projects

while the traditional agile gets done by

machine so I love the question Dave I

think we need to explore

yeah I want to add Dave a true example

of that okay on on this um I am on the

board advisor of Vienna it's an Estonian

um Venture um that connects AI with

human performance and mainly for agile

works so what what do we do we set up

micro rewards based on AI and Technology

are based on Trello boards based on jira

based on kanban boards and the speed you

move the tasks and everything like micro

rewards and it's not the end of the

project bonus but a micro rewards just

based on AI so for example you have a

this week to accomplish these and this

and then based on the way you move on

Trello on jira you can meet the targets

or not and then you can have benefits

and the benefit if it could be something

like a ticket to the to the movie

theater you know a donation uh to the

victims of uh the war or whatever so

these kind of micro and this is all AI

based because the AI takes a look on the

whole stream of the Sprint and create

incentives to make sure that you deliver

your Sprint on time this is just a a

real example of happening today and this

is just one I I can give you another 300

different examples of that okay uh so

look

um uh Federico from Rome uh any in near

initiative to evaluate actual or near

future maturity of AI tools uh

supporting pm

Federico good to see you I'm just going

through the questions and they're

amazing this is really the source for

another article more work because they

are not just

um they're not superficial questions the

questions that you are all put in here

are deep questions I think that that's

great and Federico to your question I

think I've not seen there's maturity in

I.T the CMM model that we all saw 20

years ago so but I've not seen it

applied yet to Ai and not along for

project management so to be honest I

don't I've not seen anything and I think

there's a sense for that maybe on the

maturity of your data it could be a

starting point but it's a great point to

further analyze further work on the

maturity of AI and project management

definitely an area to explore and thank

you Federico for the great question I'm

just impressed Ricardo yeah yeah it's so

many now we have more than a hundred

okay

yeah let's take two more and then we are

done okay Marshall uh talking about AI

implemented at the pmo guide look I I

don't work for PMI of course I know the

pmbok very well but remember uh you said

Marcio that it would be a new specific

area of knowledge and I just want to

remember that pmx7 there is no knowledge

area anymore and the PM box 7 already

considered many of these aspects of

Technology already on it so if you ask

me it's not

AI uh uh everything AI but there is a

lot of things on the current PM box that

are already covering Ai and I don't

believe that you need a new PM box just

for AI because then we need another PM

box just for Conflict Management another

PM box so I think AI goes on on the top

of that okay and and now maybe uh uh

maybe for uh for you here let me uh

Chris

um AI can only predict success if they

are given the right data but the data is

so historic and does not reflect the

future and narrow networks are as biased

as we are we don't yet have the right

data being collected so that is the same

challenge we face without AI how do you

see the collection of clean data

improving when will this happen great

question Chris Antonio

okay Chris from Bahrain it's always good

to see you and I know you've been

working on this I think I think that

what you're stating there wasn't my

belief all the time about the importance

of data data and cleansing what I've

seen and this is confirmed by the

professor Paul from uh from Canada is

that the new versions of AI are much

smarter in terms of data so some of the

gaps that we had can be can be overcome

with the recreation of data and and it's

not this solution it's not going to

solve it I don't see AI taking our

decision which is still very flawed

anyway today if you see the the poll the

the poor success rate that we have in

projects I see it as a compliment this

is another opinion so it's now never

going to be perfect but it's a voice

that we need to listen because this is

data we always talk about Knowledge

Management we talk about Lessons Learned

in project management they're not used

today they're not used so I think AI can

help with that and and make us better

decision makers but indeed there's still

a gap in like Ricardo said AI is not

perfect and will not be perfect in the

next years but we don't need to

disregard it just for that

thank you yeah absolutely let me just

add before we we close

um look at Chris I agree with you but I

want just to to raise one point with you

have you thought about AI trying to plan

and predict projects with no historical

information

unsupervised learning

because I saw people already trying to

study this it's trying to break

everything for example you built a a for

example a building

uh and you use historical information

but have you tried to use Ai and say

look AI please try an error uh

interactive to find the best way of

building a building sometimes it comes

with absolutely surprising and this for

example I I started looking this when I

saw the AI uh

no um Alpha go from deepmind where the

the player of goal is started that the

machine started playing completely

different from the way a player plays

because it it was never a play before so

it didn't learn something like you learn

basic moves no for stride and error so

these Chris could be an absolutely

disruptive future for many many projects

okay and chat GPT is is one of the

things using this to generate code for

you look we we don't have much time I I

just want to share our final slides so

uh it's one Antonio one mind and the

other one with the the QR code so uh

Antonio uh

you can you know where to find us I

think the LinkedIn newsletter is

something that I I try to cover these

new topics the the certification on

Project practitioner you you'll get the

slide so I don't want to bother with

with my stuff you get their summary

um and where to connect later on perfect

and for me I just want to to tell you I

just released it yesterday my new

newsletter called Beyond hype and and

this is a very personal project for me

it's it's something that I share my

questions my concerns and and if you

want to subscribe both on on my website

and also on LinkedIn okay and this is

the final contact information for

Antonio we we are very both very easy to

reach okay we we are on LinkedIn and we

are very open on the network and on that

uh button here you see the QR code to

download the presentation so you can

download all these slides by using this

QR code or if you want you can use the

same link that you use to register for

this webinar are r r v a r g dot a s

slash a IPM I just redirected directly

to the slide deck okay so you can

download and you can revisit so Antonio

my friend thank you very very much for

the partnership you know it's always a

pleasure working with you we will record

uh some answers uh to uh to the

questions uh you raised and we'll

publish them Antonio thank you very much

for your time okay and see you all in a

future time okay thank you very much

bye-bye everyone

have a good weekend