How Much AI Change Is Coming...and How Fast?

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  

A few months ago, Microsoft’s AI CEO made headlines when he gave an interview and stated that “most, if not all” white-collar work will be automated through artificial intelligence within 18 months.

I’ll freely admit that he knows a heck of a lot more about AI than I do, although he clearly has an agenda. Still, that seems like a very bold claim.

Project manager was one of the roles that he specifically called out, along with accountant, lawyer and marketer. I believe that implies an outdated, and inaccurate, view of what a modern project manager actually does, and I don’t believe that any of us will find ourselves operating in a profession that no longer needs humans by August of 2027. But let’s not pretend that the trend toward more—and more effective—use of AI isn’t going to have some impact.

Nor can we deny the scale of that impact. Microsoft also announced recently that it is on track to invest $50 billion by the end of this decade to help bring AI to lower-income countries in response to concerns that the technology could widen the inequality gap. That’s an investment that wouldn’t be happening unless massive disruption were occurring.

So far, the focus on AI in project environments has been to improve efficiency and eliminate administrative work. That’s something that most PMs welcome&…

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