The role of AI in enhancing project management effectiveness
This is an AI generated image created by RJDP using DALL·E
If you watched any of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2024) coverage, you’d have noticed the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Consumers have a wider than ever selection of AI powered tools for the home - from smart home agents designed to enhance the daily living experience, to mirrors which support your stress management. In business, AI is being used to combat financial crime, expedite legal processes, and provide cost estimations in construction. At RJDP, we believe AI is here to stay and our team is already embracing its capabilities.
In this blog, we will introduce some of the use cases for AI in Project Management (PM) and how they, like the AI powered mirror, could help reduce your stress!
AI’s growing prominence in consumer products and modern business processes is more visible than ever and the potential benefits are immense for its users. Its integration into project management has the potential to be equally transformative. AI’s ability to process vast amounts of data quickly and accurately allows for more informed decision-making and can significantly reduce team stress - by providing individuals the tools to stay ahead.
At RJDP, we are continuously reviewing how AI can add value to our project management approach, unlocking new and innovative ways to improve the service we provide to our clients and their end-customers. Below, we have shared a few ways we’re incorporating AI into our processes.
Refining project scope: GPTs (Generative Pre-Trained Transformers) can be trained using project data and contractual agreements to identify gaps between our clients’ capabilities and the end-customer’s expectations/specifications. This can help our clients’ improve the accuracy of a project’s scope, reducing the risk of costly change management processes during execution.
Expand the utility of project data: At RJDP, we are proud of our project delivery approach which is built upon the capture and processing of extensive project data and information, creating a ‘memory’ of the project. We are leveraging these project memories in new ways through the training and testing of GPT assistants on a project-by-project basis. Our PMs can engage with these assistants throughout the day to obtain accurate contextual feedback to queries - expediting decision-making and stakeholder communication.
Avoid missing actions: AI can help distil actions from various project sources including meeting notes, performance reports, emails, and risk and issue registers. This reduces the likelihood of overlooking actions and, when coupled with automations and software integrations, improves the overall effectiveness of the project delivery team and supporting functions.
Reporting: AI tools can enable the creation of comprehensive, real-time reports by aggregating and analysing data from various project areas, including schedules, budget utilisation, resource allocation, and risks and issues. This automation not only reduces the time and effort traditionally required to produce reports but also ensures higher accuracy and the ability to identify trends and anomalies quickly. Furthermore, AI’s ability to create effective summaries of project reports helps our team distribute information more effectively to our clients’ executives.
Remove language barriers: Language translation tools are not new but AI has enhanced their accuracy, efficiency, and range of capabilities. At RJDP, we are using AI powered translation tools to convert information in real-time within our chosen PM software. Feedback has been extremely positive, with stakeholder’s citing the impressive accuracy of the translations compared to traditional tools (Google Translate). This helps us build a more inclusive project environment for our global project partners.
Enhanced communication: Accurate and timely communication is central to a successful project. At RJDP, we encourage stakeholders to uphold a high standard of communication and AI helps us lead this initiative. Suitably trained AI models can provide rich context to queries and review planned communications to improve the accuracy and value of exchanged information.
Controlling project issues: A suitably trained GPT can effectively analyse patterns and root causes in issue registers, offering predictive insights and proactive solutions. It can facilitate rapid problem-solving by suggesting actionable steps based on historical data and best practices - reducing response time to quality issues. Additionally, it can assist in drafting clear, concise documentation for issue resolution, ensuring effective and valuable communication across the project team. At RJDP, we are currently testing these functions to improve our already excellent and proven issues management process.
Describing technical drawings: A novel use for AI is helping non-technical project stakeholders understand technical drawings. By processing and translating the complex information in these drawings into simpler, more digestible explanations, GPT models can act as an intermediary, breaking down technical jargon and concepts into layman’s terms. This approach not only bridges the communication gap between technical and non-technical team members but also ensures that all stakeholders have a clear and comprehensive understanding of the project's technical aspects, facilitating better decision-making and collaboration.
Due diligence
This is an AI generated image created by RJDP using DALL·E
Human verification
It is imperative that users of AI verify the output of their models before committing to deploying them on projects or across their organisation. Human verification plays a crucial role in ensuring the accuracy and appropriateness of outputs from existing and custom GPT models. This process is important for several reasons:
Accuracy check: Even though GPT models are advanced, they can still produce errors or misinterpretations. Human oversight is necessary to verify facts, especially in critical applications.
Contextual relevance: Humans can assess whether the AI's response is contextually appropriate for the specific situation, which is crucial in nuanced or complex scenarios like conflict resolution.
Ethical considerations: Human moderators can evaluate responses to ensure they align with ethical guidelines and societal norms, which is particularly important for sensitive topics. Monitoring outputs also helps in preventing the misuse of AI technology, such as generating misleading content.
Custom model improvement: For custom GPT models, human feedback is essential in fine-tuning and improving the model based on specific needs and objectives.
Compliance and liability: Human verification helps in maintaining compliance with legal and regulatory standards and can reduce liability risks by catching potentially problematic outputs.
Data privacy
If you decide to test or adopt AI in your business then it’s imperative that you understand the provider’s data management policy and whether your interactions will be used to train public models.
Ownership
Make sure your AI models and data are not used to train publicly available tools
Ensure that you own your inputs and outputs, where allowed by law
Ensure that all data is removed from your provider’s systems within (at least) 30-days of its deletion from the tool
Control
Check whether you have fine-grained control over access and available features and if they are suitable and reasonable for your business
Check the legal ownership of your custom GPTs - they should be yours alone to use and are not shared with anyone else
Security
Check data encryption. At RJDP, our tool uses data encryption at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.2+)
Check for security compliance. At RJDP, the API platform we use has been audited and certified for SOC 2 Type 2 compliance
Conclusion
The integration of AI into project management is not just a futuristic concept, but a present reality at RJDP. From refining project scopes and expanding the utility of project data, to enhancing communication and overcoming language barriers, AI is proving to be a powerful tool in project delivery. The automation of reporting processes, as highlighted in our "Reporting" section, further exemplifies AI's transformative impact.
AI enables our project managers to focus more on strategic decision-making and less on time-consuming tasks, helping us exceed the expectations of our clients and project stakeholders. But, like everyone should, we are following an abundance of caution with its steady deployment.
Future posts
We will be expanding on each of the AI use cases outline above in future posts so keep an eye on our social media for updates, or contact us to discuss how our project management can transform your business with AI!