How to learn AI the sensible way
From the The Money Files Blog
by Elizabeth Harrin
A blog that looks at all aspects of project and program finances from budgets, estimating and accounting to getting a pay rise and managing contracts.
Written by Elizabeth Harrin from RebelsGuideToPM.com.
Recent Posts
Making social impact part of everyday delivery
Who really owns the project budget? Clarifying financial accountability
How to learn AI the sensible way
Making sense of project cost reports
How real PM mentoring actually works
Categories
accounting,
agile,
ai,
appraisals,
Artificial Intelligence,
audit,
Backlog,
Benchmarking,
benefits,
Benefits Management,
Benefits Realization,
Bias,
books,
budget,
Business Case,
business case,
business case,
Career Development,
Career Development,
carnival,
case study,
Change Management,
checklist,
collaboration tools,
communication,
Communications Management,
competition,
complex projects,
Conferences,
config management,
consultancy,
contingency,
contracts,
corporate finance,
corporate finance,
cost,
Cost Management,
cost management,
credit crunch,
CRM,
data,
data security,
debate,
Decision Making,
delegating,
digite,
earned value,
Education,
Energy and Utilities,
Estimating,
events,
FAQ,
financial management,
financial management,
forecasting,
future,
GDPR,
general,
Goals,
Governance,
green,
Information Technology,
Innovation,
insurance,
interviews,
it,
Knowledge Management,
Leadership,
Lessons Learned,
measuring performance,
Mentoring,
merger,
methods,
metrics,
multiple projects,
negotiating,
Networking,
news,
Olympics,
organization,
Organizational Culture,
outsourcing,
personal finance,
Planning,
pmi,
PMO,
PMO,
Portfolio Management,
portfolio management,
presentations,
privacy policy,
process,
procurement,
product management,
productivity,
Program Management,
project closure,
project data,
project delivery,
Project Success,
project testing,
prototyping,
qualifications,
Quality,
quality,
Quarterly Review,
records,
recruitment,
reports,
requirements,
research,
resilience,
Resource Management,
resources,
risk,
Risk Management,
ROI,
salaries,
Schedule Management,
Scheduling,
scope,
Scope Management,
security,
small projects,
Social Impact,
social impact,
social media,
software,
software,
software,
Stakeholder Management,
stakeholders,
Strategy,
success factors,
supplier management,
team,
Teams,
testing,
testing,
timesheets,
tips,
training,
transparency,
trends,
value management,
vendors,
video,
virtual teams,
workflow
Date
AI was the talk of last year, and this year seems like it’s still up there in terms of things we need to know, learn about and absorb into how we do our jobs as project professionals. The AI pressure feels relentless – there’s so much to learn. And yet we are picking it up as we go along – familiarity with AI is rising because it has to.
I talk to project managers who are worried about falling behind. Learning new tech shouldn’t feel like a second job. However, gone are the days when you could go on a 3-day classroom Microsoft Project course and feel like you knew what to do. These days, tech in the cloud is updated regularly and new features come out all the time. And, of course, AI is no different – if anything, the rate of development and adoption feels like it’s significantly faster.
What do we actually need to know about AI?
The good news is that you don’t have to know it all. It’s worth focusing your learning on where AI fits into delivery work and where it doesn’t. You don’t need to code anything, in fact, even experienced coders are coding less these days as AI responds to natural language prompts as well as it does to code inputs.
Low-effort learning areas
Let’s say that you do want to put some effort in. You should start with PMI’s courses in AI, which are great, tool-agnostic learning resources which will help you build your vocabulary and the basics.
Then think about where you could use the tools you already have access to – likely a generative AI office ‘companion’ type chat tool.
Then think about where you could advance your use of AI for specific use cases like decision support, scenario exploration, drafting communications or identifying risks.
Boundaries and risks to be aware of
Learning all the cool stuff you can do with AI is one thing, but you also have to balance that with boundaries and risks. Think about how bias and overconfidence might show up in your data or processes. What might data sensitivity look like for your data sets? Is there a risk of over-automation, and what does that mean for the humans in the process?
A sustainable learning approach
Think about learning in small loops, on a just-in-time basis so you can apply knowledge immediately. Then it’s more likely to stick and also to feel worthwhile, not like you’ve just spent time watching a video on AI theory knowing you can’t put it into practice.
Let the experts in the business focus on the larger, complex projects – you’ll be brought in to support with project management best practice as and when you are needed, so ignore the pressure of becoming a subject matter expert in AI if it doesn’t feel like a natural fit for you.
You’ll learn better through doing, so think about how you can develop AI literacy over AI mastery. You want to be competent in the tools that you have so you can make the best use of them, but there’s no need to be at the cutting edge, trying every product in your spare time.
Organisations are typically quite slow to change, so you’ve got time and the fact that you’re even asking yourself the question about how best to learn AI puts you ahead of some of your colleagues!
Posted on: June 03, 2026 12:00 AM |
Permalink
Comments (3)
Please login or join to subscribe to this item
Kwiyuh Michael Wepngong
Community Champion
Financial Management Specialist | US Peace Corps
Yaounde, Centre, Cameroon
Thanks for sharing with us
Thomas Kish
Plant Project Engineer| Volvo Cars Charleston
Goose Creek, Sc, United States
Using AI to help with meeting notes is a game changer. If you have Meeting Facilitator in Teams, use it. If not, turn on "record and transcribe" in the Teams options, then take the transcription, paste it into Copilot, ask it to make you meeting minutes. Scan through them, you will need to update the speaker names and fix some acronyms, but it will give you 90-95% of your meeting minutes very quickly. It's been a massive time saver.
Please Login/Register to leave a comment.
|
"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and, if they can't find them, make them."
- George Bernard Shaw
|
