Presenting Live at PMI Athens

 

In May, I delivered a Masterclass at the annual Symposium for the Athens, Greece, PMI chapter. This was an extremely well-organized event, and it was exciting to present live in front of 200 people. There was an impressive lineup of speakers, all discussing the value of AI in project management. All speakers clearly engaged the attendees.

My message to participants was about the knowledge we need as project practitioners to understand and implement AI solutions that improve project performance. Based on my conversations with participants, the overwhelming sentiment was the desire to find out how to take advantage of AI. AI technology does not offer a simple or straightforward solution. It is flexible around solving problems and increasing productivity.

One observation was how having more project experience may not help with AI. While on stage, I polled people, asking them to raise their hands if they had ever used ChatGPT. About one-third indicated they had. Two months earlier, I asked a similar question to over 60 project management students in my classes at a business college in France. I asked how many had used ChatGPT on a regular basis. Every single student raised their hand. Is this evidence of a generational gap that will eventually have an impact on project managers? 

I heard from attendees at the symposium who were frustrated by unclear information about AI technology. How much data is required? What can be done about data security and privacy issues? How can ethical concerns be managed? Most importantly, participants wanted to know how to use AI successfully. In addition to answering their questions, I provided a step-by-step approach that starts with assessing their project data and then thinking about the project issue(s) they are trying to solve.

AI technology has many branches and can solve various problems using different methods. Training and education are the most significant contributions to achieving effective AI solutions in project management.