AI and Project Management, are they destined for perfect harmony?

As somebody which is working with AI from 1989, not only in the practical field in manufacturing and virtual realty for example, researching in simulate human consciousness and presenting papers in congress, let me say that AI becomes a new buzzword unfortunately and lot of people thinks it is something like you can see in films like "Terminator". By the way, we are surrounded of AI devices for example inside refrigerators from long time ago (everything is called "fuzzy logic inside"). But, returning to your point, AI will not replace human beings by definition of AI (people that worked with AI know about that) just will replace those activities which do not add value mainly those which are repetitive and always the same. For example, I created code in Python and R that I have attached to MS Project and helped me do not work repetitive activities based on information I keep from lot of past projects I lead in the past. In fact, few people know, that AI is using in repetitive and monotone activities and had saved the life or had saved the loss of body members thanks to do that type of activities. About jobs that haven´t been invented yet is not because the AI. Just think about it in terms of all the Covid-19 has impacted in the work world.

Marcus,

To add on to what Sergio stated, the term “AI” has been hijacked and is used for marketing hyperbole, as it generates traffic anywhere it is mentioned. And that traffic, combined with hyperbolic messaging, sells books, magazines, products and inflates the stock of companies.

Everything that you hear about regarding AI at the best falls into the category of “Weak AI.” If companies wanted to be “fully honest,” then they would ONLY state the field they are operating in (e.g., machine learning, natural language processing, etc.) and drop the monetarily focused use of the AI term. But that is not going to happen, and we are on this train to its ultimate destination – the funding of an “AI Bubble.”

--- End of my non-mindful commentary.

Now, regarding 80% of Project Management jobs being eliminated by so-called AI technology. If you are a PM by title only, and your only duty is to “relay communications,” then yes, you might have reason to be concerned. But that is not the core of our profession, so I strongly see that statement as inaccurate.

It's true that AI seems to create some fears for future human resources, but again if we check figures from the past and extrapolate into the future, then the 80% mark is seriously questionable

I do not believe that 80% of PM work will be eliminated by 2030 because of AI.

To add on to what Mr. Sergio & Mr. George have already mentioned, each project differs in complexity. By definition a project is a unique endeavour which means that every project will present challenges which have not been documented before.

Fundamentally, AI works by recognizing patterns in the historical data under consideration and then making a forecast. This implies that AI is great for repetitive tasks but may not be a threat to the entire profession of project management.

I'm not saying that things are not going to change, they will. But, aren't we as project managers supposed to adapt to the changing work environment. I would like to think of AI as another helpful tool to manage mega projects rather than as a threat.

Yes, AI has been around for decades, but like everything advances are accelerating.
We will have autonomous cars in a few years, we could also have autonomous projects?

Soon we will have
- implanted brain devices replacing phones
- network acess everywhere
- VR/AR increasing remote working effectivity
- real time translation
- AI empathy by emotions sensing
- human digital twins doing interviews

How all of this can help a PM to do a different job is up to imagination and experimentation. The PM job will change.