Please Learn and Understand AI

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Artificial Intelligence  

Let’s be honest: Most of us couldn’t function without Google, even if we are only talking about the search engine rather than all the other products and services. Sure, there are alternatives, but there is a reason why we talk about “Googling” something when we are looking information up online. So it is only natural that I would look for inspiration by typing something broad into Google. This time it was “AI in project management.”

Well, you’ve probably noticed that recently Google has started providing an AI-powered information box above the search results. Here’s the first line of the box that came up when I performed that search:

“AI in project management is a methodology that uses AI and machine learning to improve project outcomes.”

What? It’s a methodology now? When did that happen, and why didn’t anyone tell me? I could use this as an example of why you need to be careful trusting information from AI, because of course it isn’t a methodology. But I actually want to use it as an example of something else—that is, the need to learn and understand what AI is, and what it isn’t.

Everyone knows something
In the last couple of years, it has become impossible to avoid artificial intelligence. Not specifically in the project management domain, but in every aspect of life (AI …

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