You’ve Never Been in Such High Demand

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.

  Career Development  

How many people do you think are working in project management globally? According to the new Global Project Management Talent Gap Report from PMI, it’s around 40 million. Pretty impressive, right?

But even as I write that, I can hear people say, “Yes, but that’s all going to change with artificial intelligence.” It’s becoming a common refrain. I willingly agree that AI is going to change what project management is by automating much of the administration and providing greater analytical capabilities to all aspects of the discipline. But I don’t believe that project management as a profession should feel threatened.

Will there be PMs who lose their jobs because of AI? Undoubtedly, though in most cases they will be the PMs who are reluctant to embrace the potential that AI offers. But AI is just one factor in the future of project management—and in terms of the global picture, it’s a relatively small factor.

I know that some of you won’t agree with that, but let’s go back to PMI’s Talent Gap report for a moment: “By 2035, organizations could need up to 65 million project professionals to keep pace with growth and change.”

Sixty-five million…which is 25 million more than today, and 29.8 million more than PMI’s analysis of what project management professional supply is currently …

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