A frequently asked question in the main ProjectManagement.com community discussion group is about the perceived impacts of machine learning on project delivery.
Some contributors worry that sufficient advances in AI will render the role of a project manager obsolete whereas others remain bullish about the prospects for the profession.
A recent Harvard Business Review article by Stephen M. Kosslyn titled “Are You Developing Skills That Won’t Be Automated?” would support a positive outlook on this topic. In the article, the author asserts that roles in which emotion and context play a strong influence will still need to be performed by human beings. We have enough challenges with human leaders struggling to inspire team members or effectively align stakeholders to expect that machines will have an easier time doing so.
I’m expecting that enhancements in current machine learning technology will free us from rote administrative activities which even the most senior project manager finds themselves having to perform from time to time. While such advances might reduce a full-time requirement for project administrators on large, complex projects, it might enable such roles to support a larger number of projects at the same time.
What might projec managers do with all of this extra time?
Being assigned to more projects concurrently is not the answer! If we believe that project management is a strategic role then we should be encouraging greater focus, not less.
Freed up capacity could be better utilized on frequently neglected practice areas such as stakeholder engagement, risk management and knowledge creation. Envision the potential benefits to your projects if you had even 10% more time to devote to such practices.
We could also invest more in our own personal development or giving back to the profession or the community.
Is it possible that at some point in the future, AI will have the ability to independently manage a project staffed with humans?
This seems realistic if we agree with Gene Roddenberry’s vision of intelligent sentient machines such as Commander Data, but I’m equally optimistic that the next one or two generations of project managers will have little to fear so long as they continue to invest in developing their soft skills.
Easy in theory, difficult in practice 