Community Specialist| Project Management InstituteNewtown Square, PA, United States
How do you balance the use of AI in project stakeholder management with the need for a personal touch and human interaction when building relationships?
For instance, have you used AI to draft stakeholder communications or to generate a stakeholder analysis? Do you have any best practices or tips for project managers new to AI-based stakeholder management? Saving Changes...
I'd say that so long as there is a human at the beginning and middle of the process in terms of providing reasonable inputs and then validating and tuning the results or using the suggested options as another reference then the AI tool is likely acting as a useful assistant.
The biggest danger is in blindly utilizing messaging generated by an AI tool or following a recommendation without independent validation. The latter is especially likely to land you in trouble because even with multiple progressive prompts it would be almost impossible to provide an AI tool with a comprehensive understanding of the context of a stakeholder scenario such that it would give you the best possible recommendation.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Laura
I still believe the term "Stakeholders Management" is not the right term to use as Stakeholders like to be engaged, not managed so probably "Stakeholders Engagement" is a better term.
Engagement of stakeholders is all about human interaction and if this is lost, or even reduced, then you can start having issues if you rely on AI a lot. I would say you can rely on AI in analyzing stakeholders, establishing stakeholders matrixes but when it comes to engagement, even messaging, I would do it human to human.
RK
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1 reply by Laura Schofield
Jan 02, 2024 10:24 AM
Laura Schofield
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Thanks Rami Kaibni! I like your modification to the terminology and resulting re-framing.
Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Laura,
In my opinion, a project manager will likely be “walking the plank” of their ship if they communicate to their stakeholders/sponsor with recognizable generative AI content. Whether warranted or not, the question “Who is piloting the ship?” would be whispered, eventually undermining the PM.
Using tooling for mining project analytics is fine. But in practice, the project executive (i.e., the PM) must communicate in the context of their corporate-political vernacular, or else find themselves “not the PM.” That level of nuance is outside the realm of current-day or near-future generative AI. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
I used AI for activities related to stakeholder management from long time ago.I made my own algorithms in times where they were not available. In my case, between other things, for managing the large amount of data and for trying to corelate it. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Hi Laura,
if your goal is to build relationships, as you state, then networking is the way to go. Could be virtual, or better but harder f2f.
Regarding stakeholder management, for me, it encompasses stakeholder identification and analysis and then engagement (and then iterate). There are many tools for the first step, to find information about individuals and to analyze networks. Stakeholder engagement (which is at its core influencing) can also be supported by tools, as is showcased by social media influencers, journalists, and marketing groups.
Human perceptions and behaviors are no black boxes for AI, or computers in general. My car tells me when I am tired.
As an example, in 1978, when introducing computer monitors and keyboards to a bank, we could analyze the keystrokes made by each employee and see when they took a break (and with whom). Could be regarded as social network analysis. And no, the idea of data privacy was not invented yet (interestingly, ethical concerns surfaced though).
There are not technologies currently that can create better stakeholder engagement than the direct human interaction face to face. In the future we will see if the metaverse can provide the same experience but currently, AI can’t replace human interactions Saving Changes...
Community Specialist| Project Management InstituteNewtown Square, PA, United States
Dec 21, 2023 7:33 PM
Replying to Rami Kaibni
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Laura
I still believe the term "Stakeholders Management" is not the right term to use as Stakeholders like to be engaged, not managed so probably "Stakeholders Engagement" is a better term.
Engagement of stakeholders is all about human interaction and if this is lost, or even reduced, then you can start having issues if you rely on AI a lot. I would say you can rely on AI in analyzing stakeholders, establishing stakeholders matrixes but when it comes to engagement, even messaging, I would do it human to human.
RK
Thanks Rami Kaibni! I like your modification to the terminology and resulting re-framing. Saving Changes...
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