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?
I have been using a few gen AI tools, specifically chatbots, data analytics tools to simplify my work in day-to-day PM role. They work great for prompts like summarization, comparison and some level of data mining, but there are many use case scenarios where one can't totally rely on the AI tool to get the final solution. For e.g. I tried mining a spreadsheet and convert certain texts into shorter characters required to visually represent my data into a line/bar chart. While the chatbot wasn't able to give me the final graph, it saved me several minutes in getting an excel formula with examples, that I was able to use to convert the big spreadsheet into more sensical data table, and moreover it gave me steps to quickly create the line chart that I eventually wanted. All that within 10min.
So, I see potential in increasing productivity!
I enjoy the head chef analogy that you are responsible for the quality and execution of all dishes that leave your kitchen.
Project Manager need to differiate any element that are related to its project. Commotizing those elements will reduce efficiency in the project management, thus reducing project's achivements.
The adoption of prompt engineering will not necessarily commoditize project management skills; on the contrary, it can become a key differentiator for project managers (PMs).
Certain operational tasks performed by PMs can be executed more quickly, allowing them to focus on strategic aspects
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Giovanni EspositoHead of Product Development| EP SolutionsLausanne, Switzerland
I believe GenAI will significantly enhance the efficiency of PMs, enabling them to deliver greater value in less time. However, I don't think it will reduce the role to a commodity. I recently attended an insightful webinar titled Project HEADWAY: What AI Cannot Do for Project Managers, and I fully agree with its conclusions. Saving Changes...
"Paradoxically, the more we automate technical tasks through prompting, the more valuable our 'human-centric' skills become. An AI can draft a status report, but it cannot navigate a high-stakes political conflict in a boardroom or build genuine trust with a skeptical stakeholder. I see prompt engineering as a tool that frees us from the 'administrative' burden, allowing high-value PMs to double down on Emotional Intelligence, Negotiation, and Adaptive Leadership. Those who master the human element will be more indispensable than ever." Saving Changes...
I think AI will help PMs differentiate themselves and command higher value, as it will still require good judgment and critical thinking to prompt in ways that are insightful and useful, and to determine whether the outputs should be taken as a basis for decisions and actions. Saving Changes...
With the new generation of generative AI portfolio/program/project manager and business analyst role "are dead" at least in the way they were originally defined. I think a good source to understand that are the two courses on generative AI delivered for free by the PMI, mainly if you see the 3 layer model.
AI will continue to be a double-edged tool. If used to replace personal, human efforts, of course, one's value as a Project Manager would diminish, and it would only be a matter of time before you make an obvious mistake from mindlessly lifting content from chat. On the other hand, if used to augment one's work, one would get a lot of value from it. Saving Changes...
Hamada SaeedMiddle East Regional Manager| Petroleum Analyzer Company
Hi all, I believe with the wide spread of AI and soon AGI, the adaptation for mastering prompt engineering will be critical for all professions, that including project manager. Mastering this skill will help both automate and commoditize all task and repeated work activities to the profession of project management. Yet, we still need the project manager to make strategic, critical and complex decision that AI can't. At the end of the day, AI won't replace the the PM role but will be a great tool to assist all of us being efficient and generate more value for the project team Saving Changes...
Oluwasogo AdewaleAssistant Director| Federal Capital Development Authority, Department of Engineering Services, ElectAbuja, Fct, Nigeria
I'm Engr. Adewale, with 20+ years of experience in project management. I believe that prompt engineering will enhance the work of project managers more than commoditize it.
No one can effectively use the AI for project management without understanding project management processes and principles.
Moreover, the human intervention in AI is irreplaceable, so without an experienced project manager, AI responses would be uncoordinated, awry, nebulous, confusing, and whimsical.
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