Will the widespread adoption of prompt engineering commoditize project management skills, or can it help PMs differentiate themselves and command higher value?
Director, Learning Design & Development| PMIAsheville, NC, United States
Hi PMI Community! I’m Sarah Philbrick, and I work as a Product Manager at PMI with a focus on our learning offerings. As we go on this skill-building journey together, I’m excited to engage in meaningful conversations, explore trending topics, and learn from each other.
Reflecting on one such topic, GenAI and prompt engineering, I am interested to hear your perspective on commoditization vs. differentiation.
Will the widespread adoption of prompt engineering commoditize project management skills, or can it help PMs differentiate themselves and command higher value?
Like the evolution of computers replacing typewriters, so has generative AI and prompt engineering come to replace the manual ways of doing projects as PMs. As project professionals, genAI and prompt engineering is the way to go, to enhance accurate and faster delivery of our project outcomes. Saving Changes...
Russell SandidgeDirector Cybersecurity| Varada ConsultingSterling, Va, United States
As a seasoned project manager, I constantly add skills to my toolbox, just as a tradesman adds tools. Frequently used tools come out of the toolbox and I carry them in my toolbelt! Generative AI is one of those tools in my toolbelt these days. The raw materials I use my tools on are typically specific to the situation. To be effective project managers must apply their industry-specific knowledge, which will allow Project Managers to engineer prompts for AI that improve productivity and professionalism by combining tools and raw materials.
Saving Changes...
Abass BalogunSenior Project Management Consultant| IMP Group
Gen AI will definitely not eradicate the role of a PM but will rather make a PM more effective and efficient. Saving Changes...
Prompt engineering is more than just asking questions, it's an art and science that involves the careful formulation of instructions or questions intended for language models, such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini, for example. The aim is to optimize quality, accuracy and relevance for decision-making. With the right approach, it is possible to extract detailed information, generate creative content, or even guide the model to perform complex tasks with surprising efficiency.
Prompt engineering is an essential skill for the project manager to harness the full potential of ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs), which can have diverse and disruptive applications. Prompt engineering is not just a technical skill, it is a bridge between human creativity and the computational power of artificial intelligence. Saving Changes...
Prompt engineering in project management adds more value as it enhances communication and decision-making, increasing productivity and optimizing resources. It supports consistent documentation, improves training, and enhances quality control, ultimately streamlining project execution and achieving better outcomes. Saving Changes...
Jose InsenserServices Portfolio Manager| AirbusMadrid, Spain
From my experience as a program manager in the defense sector, I believe that prompt engineering won't commoditize project management skills. Instead, it offers a unique opportunity for PMs to stand out and add more value. Leveraging AI is helping me initiate projects, including research, background analysis and lessons learned, project setup, communications, and training. It enables us to quickly adapt to new markets and offers, , navigate complex processes, and collaborate with diverse stakeholders. Embracing AI in project management not only enhances our capabilities but also allows us to catch-up in an increasingly competitive field.
As with adoption of computers in executing tasks, generative AI tools will need to be deployed in a way that redefines how we work, nevertheless, with great oversight. As we see, despite exponential development, generative AI struggles to give us definitive results. I would argue that the project manager has an increasingly important role in making sure that project results are delivered efficiently - and correctly! Saving Changes...
AI can spare you a lot of time to came up with summarized information, data analysis (that you have to review and double check), introductory documentation, tips about how to proceed in some situations... and give you more time to bring human value to proposals, ways to work and creative solutions. Then you can double check your "human value" with the AI. Both can learn a lot. Saving Changes...
In my opinion the GenAI is tool that will boost and make faster the work of the project manager but it won't commoditize it. The main reason is that you still need a thorough knowledge of project managment principles and promp engineering at the same time to obtain good results from GenAI.
In addition to this I think that a pro of GenAI is the possibility for the PMs to have more time to dedicate to soft and front activities (like managing the team, keeping relationship with the stakeholder, etc) rather than back office activities. Saving Changes...
PMI Team Member
