In my experience, project management has always been about systems thinking. Being able to understand what is going on both socially and technically, and then being able to conceptualise those issues so they can be captured, tested and implemented rigorously.
The major benefit of systems thinking to me is that you can clearly define objectives, set clear tasks and then delegate to the team knowing that it is repeatable and scalable. But if that is my “normal” way of thinking about project management, I must now consider how my thinking of project management will need change and adapt with the introduction of AI. Whilst AI is not new, it is now widely available and needs to be part of my project management tool kit. It is essential that the project manager must constantly evolve to capture new ways of working and get the most from the technology available.
The property and construction industry has a reputation for procrastination over new technology. This is sometimes unfair when you see what some consultants and contractors have achieved in the past. It is probably fairer to say that that the industry suffers from the slow strategic adoption of new technology. This is hardly surprising given the lack of industry strategic thinking at governmental level and the number of government ministers that have touched down and then very quickly moved to other departments and areas of interest. So, as per usual we must make sense of these things ourselves within our own context.
The primary technical deliverables and outputs for project managers is documentation. New off the shelf AI tools such as Co-Pilot and ChatGPT offer much in this area:
- review of data and information
- compilation of document drafts
- editing and review of content
On the face of it, AI will be able to save you countless hours of time. But the key issue with AI is that it doesn’t “know” anything. It doesn’t “know” what a report is, or what a building is or what a team is. AI needs direction and guidance and understanding of nuance to generate meaningful management information. This means that the new skill we need to learn as project managers is the skill of Prompt Writing. The project manager must be able to create prompts for Co-Pilot, ChatGPT and the like to ensure that the outputs are meaningful.
Being able to craft meaningful AI prompts is what will save time and improve the quality of output of management information. These prompts need to reflect the intended audience, be clear and specific, use actionable language, breakdown the task and provide context. The outputs will then need to be refined as you go, and this will take practice. The project managers of the future will excel at effective prompt writing and that will give them an added and valuable skillset.
Project managers will still need to be effective communicators and team leaders and will still need to constantly develop their soft and social skills. Perhaps one of the benefits of the adoption of AI will be to create time to allow the social skills to grow and be less technocratic. This would be a great result. AI might just help the industry to be calmer and less adversarial.
