Why Do We Need All This 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   Organizational Project Management  

Warning: I feel like a grumpy old man writing this article, but not for the reason you might think. We all know that artificial intelligence is the latest significant disruptor in business, and project management is certainly going through a significant adaptation in order to embrace what AI can deliver. I see several use cases where there is already a strong argument to be made that it can be extremely beneficial, particularly around some of the administrative aspects of project delivery.

However, there are some other areas within project environments where I look at some of the things that are happening and ask myself, “Why?” The most obvious example based on recent conversations is around the addition of AI to project portfolio management (PPM) and strategic portfolio management (SPM) tools. Specifically, the developers of those tools are focusing on adding AI capabilities to decision support, modeling and planning functionality.

Let me be clear about what it is that is making me shake my head. I have no issue with this use of AI; it’s an entirely appropriate application. And I have no issue with the software companies developing the capabilities. AI drives sales at the moment, and if one vendor is going to do it, then all vendors are going to do it. It also happens to be an objective advancement in the capabilities of those tools. The issue that I …

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