When building AI projects, project team members often focus on the technology aspects of AI. After all, the AI tools are the most interesting and fun, and jamming on prompts or pulling together various AI libraries are easy and often fun to do. However, AI project success rarely has much to do with the choice of tools that are used, or even whether or not those tools are used at all.
As companies scrutinize their AI investments, 2024 is gearing up to be the year of increasing focus on getting real returns from AI projects. The days of AI wonder and awe are rapidly giving way to a feeling that AI projects need to deliver or get out. As is too often the case, AI’s repeated overpromise and overhype give way to its tendency to underdeliver on that hype and promise. Organizations need to instead focus on rational goal setting and focusing AI solutions on problems where they are most appropriately applied.
In a recent interview on the AI Today podcast, Boston University master lecturer Rich Maltzman shares insights into how the emergence of project management “power skills” is putting a dose of reality into AI projects, and helping to ensure that AI technologies deliver actually useful results.
With over 40 years of engineering and project management experience at companies like Nokia, Rich has been focused on advances in project management, especially in the non-technology components that determine project success. He is currently writing a book with three co-authors on insights into how project team leaders can elevate their skills, leveraging AI and a core set of power skills.
As Systems Become AI Enabled, The Need for Human Interaction Increases
From Rich’s perspective, the project management battles of the past few decades between different approaches to running projects are a bit misguided. He states, “We’ve had this long, ridiculous, worthless battle between agile and waterfall. We think that it’s kind of a useless battle, that people really will take sides… It’s either waterfall or agile. No, no, it’s both… Just like we say with AI, with waterfall and agile, use what works… that combination.”
He continues, “To paraphrase our (upcoming) book, it’s not about incorporating AI into existing workflows or replacing human roles with machines, replacing humans with machines. It’s about fostering a dynamic and synchronized environment where AI and humans are harnessed together to drive project success.”
A key insight is that the interplay between humans is much more critical to a project success than the specific methodology or technology used. “Humans bring unique power skills, ethical considerations and uniquely human thinking to the table. And we think that can be amplified and augmented like a laser if we use AI properly,” Rich says.
Critical skills needed for AI Success
Following up, Rich shares that there are a number of critical “power skills” that are key to effective project management. These include: communication, problem solving, collaborative leadership, strategic thinking, relationship building, accountability, adaptability, discipline, empathy, for-purpose orientation, future-focused orientation and innovative mindset. These power skills emerge from the Project Management Institute (PMI) Pulse of the Profession 2023 report. Rich and his team have further built off the results of that report to show that organizations that prioritize power skills have ten drivers that in turn yield success.
According to Rich, “for organizations that put a high priority on power skills, 57% of them report higher business benefits realization management (BRM) maturity … but for those that put low priority on project power skills, the picture is almost upside down. 18% report high BRM maturity and 49% low BRM maturity… Organizations that put a high priority on power skills have 64% high project management maturity and 11% low. On the other hand, again, almost upside down for organizations that place a low priority on power skills, 32% report high project management maturity and 40% report low project management maturity.”
The insight is that project success is not tied so tightly to the specific method or approach used to plan or manage projects, or the technology used to enhance or accelerate those projects. Rather success is on interpersonal skills that can either support or sabotage those projects for success, no matter the approach or technology used.
Rich further concludes that “one interesting thing to point out is that in this entire report from 2023 … the word AI, or artificial intelligence, is mentioned precisely zero times. So we’re talking about the connection.”
It’s becoming clear that as organizations put more emphasis on the use of AI to enhance their returns, what ends up becoming even more important are the humans in those systems and “power skills”.
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