Jazzed Up About Project Management and AI

October 31, 2023 | by Matt Crawford

During the first few days of last week's PMI Global Congress, I was inspired to jot down a few thoughts about my conference experience. Atlanta was definitely the largest number of attendees for a PMI event that I’ve attended.  AI, as expected, is a big theme of the conference and lots of discussion around how AI is going to impact project management and the rest of the world.  I’m not sure if this is coincidence or not, but I’ve heard lots of discussion and points in presentations around the soft skills and “human” skills involved in being a good project manager and leader.  It seems to be a point of emphasis in showing that the value of project management and project managers lies in the human relationships and the teamwork to get things accomplished. 

Pierre Le Manh, PMI’s president and CEO talked in the opening keynote about the need for PMI to be a home for a Project Managers and project leaders to feel safe and to learn how to leverage AI to be successful in projects, but also how to show value alongside of AI.  Gerald Leonard in his “Focus on the music: What Portfolio Managers can learn from Jazz” presentation, strummed a few songs on his bass guitar, but also talked about the importance of harmonious relationships in both jazz goups and project teams in order to be successful. Communications, soft-skills and the importance of teamwork and human interaction have long been identified as key but challenging parts of successfully managing projects and this is seemingly being reinforced alongside the value and the concern that comes with AI.

Several attendees at my colleague Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin's presentation expressed their gratitude for the way she framed "being human" as a "superpower"--allowing project managers to achieve great things by focusing on the art of project management. I think people have been somewhat worried about the AI trend, and the message that they have the power to shape their career desitinies resonates.

As a reminder to PMI members, all the sessions were taped, and will be available to view on the conference platform. I'm not seeing the live link yet, but here's a page detailing their plans. I'm looking forward to viewing all the great sessions I wasn't able to get into at the event.

Until next year!

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