As AI rapidly transforms from a niche capability to an essential component of modern project management, organizations face a critical question: how can we leverage AI as a true team member rather than just another tool?
In a recent webinar, “AI Team Members: How to Form a More Effective Partnership in Value Delivery,” Andy Jordan (President, Roffensian Consulting S.A.) and I explored this challenge and discussed practical strategies for enhancing value delivery through strategic AI integration.
In this article, I’ll give you a quick glimpse into our chat, highlighting four key focus areas where AI can transform project management effectiveness and a preview of implementation insights to help your organization move forward.
1. Focus on Analysis: Better Decisions Through Complete Data
AI-powered analytics transform how project teams process information, enabling faster, more accurate analysis than traditional methods. This capability allows project managers to make faster decisions with greater confidence while spending less time second-guessing themselves.
The result isn’t just better individual decisions but a strengthened project environment where teams embrace higher engagement and trust in leadership. When AI handles complex analysis in a transparent way, it becomes more than software—it becomes a valuable team member, enhancing everyone’s performance.
“AI-powered analytics is a real trend… It’s putting power in the hands of teams and end users.”
2. Focus on Identification: Spotting Problems Before They Impact Projects
AI excels at identifying subtle trends that humans often miss. When properly deployed, AI serves as an early warning system that flags potential issues before they escalate into major problems.
This capability transforms project management from reactive to proactive. Instead of discovering you’re three months behind schedule when you thought you were on track, AI helps teams identify variances immediately. The result is faster understanding, better collaboration, and more straightforward solutions implemented before problems require complex corrections.
“It’s going to give you a better understanding of what’s going on than you could possibly get when it’s just human beings looking at stuff. They’re going to spot the trends more quickly.”
3. Focus on Options: Making Better Choices Through Analysis
While early AI applications in project environments focused on portfolio-level investment decisions, the same concept now applies at the project level. AI can model multiple scenarios simultaneously—evaluating different solution approaches, team structures, dependencies, and schedules.
This capability enables teams to identify optimal strategies that might otherwise remain undiscovered. The downstream benefits extend beyond better decisions to include higher efficiency, better outcomes, lower risks, and increased team engagement—all while ensuring alignment with organizational objectives and key results.
“AI can give you the pros and cons and allow you to make decisions that say, ‘Okay, this is the best overall compromise’ across priorities, schedules, and budgets.”
4. Focus on Value: Optimizing Everyone’s Role
Ultimately, executives don’t invest millions in projects simply to achieve on-time, on-scope delivery—they invest in generating business value through increased revenue, market share, risk reduction, or other strategic benefits.
AI helps connect daily project work to these value objectives, transforming itself from a mere administrative tool into a true team member. This evolution enables each contributor to focus on their highest-value activities: PMs on stakeholder relationships and leadership, teams on solution delivery, and AI on workflow automation and monitoring.
“AI now isn’t a tool that you use. It’s a colleague that works with you… It’s working alongside you as opposed to just doing the stuff that you don’t want to do.”
Making AI in Project Management a Reality: 4-Step Implementation Process
Implementing AI in project management doesn’t require rocket science—it requires action. Before the Q&A, we wrapped up by providing a straightforward approach that organizations can begin immediately:
- Understand Needs: Assess your organization’s current strengths, weaknesses, and improvement priorities in project delivery
- Align Solutions & Priorities: Select tools and approaches that fit your specific needs and can adapt as those needs evolve over time
- Execute Effectively: Implement systematically, validating results and adjusting when outcomes don’t match expectations
- Review and Evolve: Commit to continuous improvement, recognizing that “good enough won’t be good enough for long” in the rapidly advancing AI landscape
Almost a quarter of participants identified “privacy and security concerns” as their most significant barrier to AI adoption, followed by “trust in AI technology” and “internal capability gaps.” While valid concerns, these issues should not be deal-breakers.
It is time to take your relationship with AI to the next level, from a mere tool to a trusted team member that you can rely on to help boost productivity while ensuring your organization stays competitive.
Learn More with Planview
You can watch the entire webinar here to learn more about effective AI implementation strategies and some of our valuable capabilities built into the Planview PPM solution, as well as listen to the Q&A.
Or, to see how you can empower AI-enhanced project management that delivers value with speed and efficiency > Watch Planview’s Project Portfolio Management demo.
