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AI will transform
project management.
Are you ready?
Transformation Assurance
AI will transform project management.
Are you ready?

Around 200 years ago the industrial revolution changed In this article, we will explain how AI is set to change
society in unimaginable ways for the time. Today another project management practice, what obstacles need to
revolution is under way, with even farther-reaching be overcome, and how project managers can prepare
consequences. Artificial Intelligence (AI), experts are themselves to stay relevant in a fully integrated,
predicting, will change everything about the way we automated and predictive project management world.
produce, manufacture and deliver 1.

From manufacturing to utilities and transport to financial What is AI?

services, AI is present in nearly every industry. AI will
also change the course of project management practice. “The designing and building of
intelligent agents that receive
Even though the application of AI software to project
management dates back as far as 19872, it is only now percepts from the environment and
that it is really taking off. Beyond data integration and take actions that maximise its chance
process automation, self-driven project management
no longer looks like mere science fiction. However, as
of successfully achieving its goals.”
we have previously seen with the Internet, big data and
all the other technological revolutions of recent times, Artificial Intelligence:
there are obstacles to be overcome before we reach A Modern Approach. Stuart Russell and
this technological utopia. Peter Norvig (Pearson, 2009)

“Why Artificial Intelligence Will Change Our World and Why It Needs To Be Purposeful” (Forbes Magazine, May 2016)
1

“The application of artificial intelligence software to project management”, William N. Hosley (PMI Project Management Journal, August 1987)
2

2 | AI will transform project management. Are you ready?

Evolution of AI in project management

The future of project management will be heavily Today the term AI is often used interchangeably with
influenced by technological breakthroughs, and there is ‘automation’. There is, however, a huge difference:
no doubt that AI will change the course of how project automation is a controlled process that follows pre-
management tasks are delivered and controlled in the programmed logic and rules, while AI is designed to
future. We are convinced that AI will evolve from simple simulate intelligent and even human thinking. To date,
task automation to predictive project analytics, advice a lot of the focus has been on the automation – requiring
and actions. However, there is something AI cannot do – a certain degree of standardisation – of tasks that are
be human. already carried out. However, we consider this as only
the first phase in the evolution of AI in project manage-
Over the years AI has been associated with different ment. This first phase will be followed by chatbot project
terms ranging from cognitive computing and machine assistants, machine learning-based project management
learning to natural language processing. What they all and, finally, autonomous project management.
have in common is the idea that machines could one day
learn by themselves, rather than having to be spoon-fed
every instruction or merely acting in accordance with a
pre-programmed rule set.

Evolution of AI in project management

Hello!

Integration and Chatbot Machine learning- Autonomous

automation assistants based project project
management management

AI will transform project management. Are you ready? | 3

Evolution of AI in project management

Hello!

Integration and automation Chatbot assistants

When it comes to integration and automation there is already AI chatbots serving as project assistants are considered
a strong focus on streamlining and automating standardised to be the second phase in the evolution of AI in project
project tasks through workflow integration and process management. Bots will take a role in human-computer
automation. For instance, project budget updates within a interaction, mainly based on speech or text recognition.
database are directly integrated into the budget forecast
report without any manual intervention. Chatbots can take over menial tasks such as organising
meetings, plan vs progress checks, reminding project team
Project planning could also be made more robust by members of scheduled activities, etc. Chatbots can even
enabling auto-scheduling by means of programmed logic include initial insights into the existing data. For example,
and rules, i.e. automatically tracking the progress and status project assistants could answer questions like “what is my
of tasks performed by project team members and alerting a team working on today?” or put these questions to team
project manager only for intervention in an exception-based members.
scenario. Interaction between incident management tools
and project planning tools could be enforced to highlight Current real-life use cases include:
potential delays based on a high number of defects within
• Fireflies.ai is an AI bot for Slack that processes
certain workstreams.
conversations within Slack and recognises tasks and
assignments on this basis 
Current real-life use cases include:
• Stratejos.ai sends team members reminders, tracks their
• Interaction between MS Project Online and Wunderlist
performance and enables the project manager
for task creation and scheduling
to recognise top contributors based on measurables 
• Using online templates and workflows, e.g. in Slack
or MS Sharepoint, to reduce time and enhance quality In our view, analogous to the first phase of project task
of data integration and automation, project assistants will con­tinue
to take over basic project management tasks and relieve
• Sending alerts when potential budgeting or scheduling
project teams of repetitive work creating little value. In this
issues are identified for the project 
regard we expect to see the close integration and plug-in
of existing and upcoming technologies relating to human-
In our view the trend towards integration and auto­mation
computer interaction in project management.
will continue in the next couple of years, mainly focusing on
As a consequence, the role of the classic project manager
more effective project management processes. Enhanced
leading a PMO and its staff will increasingly be replaced by
tools for streamlining standardised project management
intelligent project assistants (chatbots).
will thus emerge from both existing project management
software providers, workflow management vendors and
start-ups. This will increase the quality of standard project
management processes and reduce the effort and labour
costs involved in basic PMO tasks. The resulting automated
project management will reduce costs and at the same time
free up project managers to focus on more complex project
activities and manage the world outside the project (i.e.
stakeholder management).

4 | AI will transform project management. Are you ready?

 Machine learning-based project management Autonomous project management

The third phase of AI in project management introduces Similar to self-driving cars, autonomous project
machine learning into project mana­ge­ment practice. Machine management would only need limited input and intervention
learning enables predictive analytics and can provide advice from a human project manager.
to the project manager, for example on how to set up and
steer the project given certain parameters, and/or how to Besides technical project management processes – which
react to certain issues and risks to reach the best possible are what the previous three phases prima­rily focus on – an
outcome based on what worked in past projects. autonomous project management system will additionally
need to comprehensively consider and master the project
In the near future, AI could convert mind maps created by environment and related stakeholders. These AI systems
project professionals into a semantic network and derive would therefore have to be able to apply sentimental analysis
tasks and their relationships from it. For instance, AI-based algorithms to crawl through customer communications and
project scheduling could include lessons learned from previ- understand stakeholder satisfaction and commitment at any
ous projects and suggest multiple possible schedules based given point in time.
on the context and dependen­cies. Further­more, project plans
could be adapted and re-base­lined in near-real-time based There are currently no real-life use cases supporting
on historical team performance and project progress. An AI fully autonomous project management.
system could even alert the project manager to potential risks
and opportunities by using real-time project data analysis. In our view, there might be dedicated areas where autono-
mous project management could serve as an extension of
There are currently only a few examples of the successful machine-learning-based project management in the future,
integration of machine learning in project management, for especially in small, non-complex projects. However, looking
example: ahead for the next 10 to 20 years, we believe there are
unlikely to be purely self-driven artifical project managers.
• Altering scheduling views according to user permissions
Among other things this is because project budgets and
and preferences 
portfolios will ultimately be controlled by humans to manage
• Using social tagging to identify and connect users based the risk of autonomous investment decisions.
on their posted comments and to identify the best team
for a task 
• Machine-learning-based project analytics tool predicting
the expected net promoter score (NPS), expected client
satisfaction and expected write-off for PwC-internal
projects

In our view, predictive project analytics will be the most

disruptive innovation in project management in the next ten
years. It will give project managers increased visibility into
what the future may hold for a project, and will create value
by enhancing the quality of decision­making. It will also help
connect data to effective actions by drawing reliable con-
clusions about conditions and future events and enabling
decisionmakers to identify potential risks and opportunities
before they occur. An AI equipped with machine learning
could even be enabled to take decisions by itself, which
will usher in the fourth phase of AI-based project manage-
ment evolution. However, this phase will require substantial
investment to build capabilities in data analytics and machine
learning as a basis for modelling highly complex social and
economic project environments.

AI will transform project management. Are you ready? | 5

How will AI transform project management

AI creates the possibility of automated processes and

intelligent tools that will reduce manual work. However,
based on our experience it will require a certain degree
of project management maturity. Furthermore, for AI to
bring deep insights into a project or projects, it needs
to be equipped with a heavy data set from which it
can learn what works and what doesn’t. Having large
historical data sets and current project information in
a standardised form is truly one of the key challenges
when it comes to successfully implementing an AI-based
project management system.

In addition, if you want to implement an AI system in Technical project management

your existing project management environment, it’s
imperative to evaluate what benefits it can actually bring Technical project management encompas­ses the various
to your projects, as well as your business culture and tasks involved in managing and running a project.
risk appetite. Do you want simple automation – a digital We believe that these are the areas primarily supported
assistant to take care of menial tasks for you – or do you by the AI systems currently available. Intelligent project
need it to be more sophisticated and challenge the project management assistants, bots and machine learning
in depth? Finally, you also need to carefully evaluate what algorithms support project managers in their daily work
it will cost to realise these potential benefits. by analysing status and providing data-driven insights and
forecasts.
We see great opportunities for implementing AI-based
project systems in large project organisations and in
project portfolio management as a way of facilitating Strategic and business management
predictive steering of complex transformation projects
and portfolios, and thus boosting project success and Strategic and business management skills are required,
return on investment. for example, to analyse, judge (on the basis of both rules
and emotions) or prepare business decisions. AI can help
Challenges for the successful by preparing parameters, identifying interdependencies or
forecasting business outcomes. The more sophisticated
implementation of AI in project the underlying models and the more accurate the data
management streams available, the better AI can support the project
When using AI in project management you also have manager.
to remember that project management covers various
disciplines. A project manager needs to master all of them
to be successful. By contrast with intelligent agents that Leadership
operate in a defined and stable environment, for example
robots producing cars on a production line, given the This area includes various interpersonal competencies
nature of projects 3, and the social dynamic and uncertain such as guiding, leading and motivating people/stake-
environment within which a project has to be delivered, holders. The AI systems currently available can, for
a project management environment is without doubt instance, facilitate candidate selection by presenting a
much more complex. short list or ranking based on a defined set of require-
ments and patterns – but they do not take emotional and/
By way of example, the talent triangle from the Project or social dynamics into account. Added to this, leadership
Management Institute groups the various required and team management are not considered in current
skills into technical project management, strategic and AI systems.
business management, and leadership 4.

PMI defines a project as a ‘temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result’ (A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, pmi.org)
3

Talent Triangle https://www.pmi.org/learning/training-development/talent-triangle

4

6 | AI will transform project management. Are you ready?

 Summary of anticipated evolution of AI in project management

Hello!

Integration and Chatbot Machine learning-based Autonomous

automation assistants project management project management

Key Streamlining and auto- Integration and automation with Enabling predictive analytics Combining the previous phases,
elements mating tasks through additional human-computer and giving advice to the project autonomous project management
integration and process interaction, mainly based on manager based on what worked leads to little-to-no human interaction
automation speech or text recognition in past projects in project management

Outlook Sophisticated project Chatbot assistants will take Predictive project analytics will Implementation of autonomous project
management tools will en- over basic project management give project managers increased management for smaller, standard-
hance the quality of project tasks, relieve project teams of visibility into the project’s future ised projects involving relatively little
management processes and repetitive tasks and provide and enhance the quality of human/stakeholder interaction
reduce the effort and labour more interactive automation decisionmaking Purely autonomous project managers
costs capabilities Machine learning-powered seem unlikely within the next 10 to
Project managers can focus The classic project manager project management will give 20 years, since certain skills such as
more on complex project leading a PMO will be intelligent advice on project emotional intelligence, creativity and
activities creating value for increasingly replaced by scheduling and project risks leader­ship will remain the domain of
the project project assistants humans

Where we expect AI to support project management skills 5

Technical
project    
management

Strategic
and business X X ( ) ( )
management

Leadership X X X ( )

The project manager of the future

As stated initially, AI will undoubtedly change how projects In summary, we believe that AI will assist, not replace,
are delivered and how project management as a practice project managers. As with every technology, AI alone will
will evolve. In the midst of this evolution it is important not guarantee success. However, deployed purposefully,
to remember that there is something AI cannot do – be AI can be a distinctive accelerator and game changer
human. This means that project managers will also stay for project managers and thus help increase project
relevant in the age of AI if they focus on the core skills of success rates. The project managers who succeed
project management and progressively move into work will likely be those who manage to see beyond the
that emphasises human skills. This includes: bounds of ‘human’ imagination, and answer questions
about how this technology can add real value and drive
• Leadership positive change in project management and business
• People and stakeholder management transformations. This will ensure the strategic value of
• Communication (verbal & non-verbal) project management.
• Storytelling
• Empathy
• Emotional intelligence
• Negotiation According to the PMI talent triangle
5

AI will transform project management. Are you ready? | 7

Authors

PwC Switzerland
Birchstrasse 160
Postfach, 8050 Zürich

Marc Lahmann Peter Keiser Adrian Stierli

Leader Transformation Assurance Transformation Assurance Transformation Assurance
+41 58 792 27 99 +41 58 792 19 35 +41 58 792 21 69
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Our experts of other PwC territories:

Belgium Germany Netherlands

Wim Rymen Ingo Bauer Erwin de Horde
+32 2710 7238 +49 175 2649 554 +31 88 792 51 85
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Ron Martinek
+31 62 243 92 72
[email protected]

For more information: www.pwc.ch/ta

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