The rise of AI is reshaping the role of the Project Manager into one of strategic leadership. Prepare for this shift by exploring these simple generative techniques today.
The project management profession is undergoing a transformative “sea change.” Administrative workloads for project managers are decreasing, but rather than replacing them with machines, these shifts are poised to elevate their role as strategic contributors within their organizations. The decisions project managers make now will be pivotal. However, embracing this new era may require a shift in mindset, some upskilling, and a redefinition of what it means to be a project manager.
To support this transition, I’m sharing practical generative approaches you can start using today. These techniques will help you expand and enhance your organizational impact. While “generative” is often associated with artificial intelligence (AI), it simply means “having the power to originate or produce.” Project managers can adopt generative methods individually, with stakeholders, or by integrating AI, to create meaningful value and drive innovation.
Create Value by Asking the Right Questions
In the 1970s, the invention of electronic spreadsheets revolutionized the accounting profession, which at the time involved manually adding numbers on paper—an error-prone and labor-intensive process. Spreadsheets didn’t replace accountants; they amplified their value. By automating tedious tasks, accountants and business leaders were freed to explore deeper, more strategic questions.
It started with straightforward inquiries like, “What if I hired more employees?” or “What if I lowered prices slightly?” Over time, the questions grew more complex: “What if these companies merged?” or “What should the deal structure look like?”
The result? Explosive value creation in accounting and finance. This evolution forged stronger partnerships between “numbers people” and business leaders, transforming the role of accountants and leading to the widespread adoption of the CFO position—a role that scarcely existed before. For forward-thinking accountants, this shift unlocked new career opportunities and increased demand for their expertise.
Now, project managers are at a similar crossroads, with the rise of roles like Chief Transformation Officer offering a glimpse of what’s possible. The key to creating greater value as a project manager lies in asking better questions—both from those above you and those you lead.
Questions like:
- Are we solving the right problem?
- Is there a better approach? Why?
- What are our options? Why?
These “what if” questions serve as a foundation for guiding teams toward decisions that truly matter. By combining design thinking approaches with generative AI, project managers can answer these questions quickly and effectively, positioning themselves as indispensable strategic leaders.
How this benefits you: If these approaches are new to you, getting started might feel overwhelming. Many project managers wait until their manager or PMO leader mandates the use of these tools and techniques. By that point, they find themselves scrambling to catch up instead of proactively embracing the change.
However, you don’t need prior experience to begin. Simply experimenting with these methods, even without mastery, can deliver immediate value and build your confidence to keep going. Starting now positions you ahead of the curve, ready to lead rather than follow.
Don’t Overthink How to Get Started with AI
Project management today remains weighed down by administrative tasks that generative AI promises to streamline or even eliminate entirely. While adoption has been slower than anticipated, it’s set to accelerate as the technology advances. For instance, a recent poll on ProjectManagement.com found that nearly 60% of respondents hadn’t yet used generative AI to take or organize meeting notes—but most plan to try it within the next three months. Similarly, PMI research reveals that although only 21% of respondents are currently using AI, 82% of senior leaders expect AI to influence how projects are managed within the next five years.
While expertise in prompt engineering can be helpful, you don’t need to be an expert to get started. Simply interacting with generative AI in your own way can provide valuable insights and improve your decision-making. A few straightforward techniques can make a significant difference.
Start by taking your most pressing work challenge and reframing it generically to avoid revealing proprietary information. For example, suppose you’re leading the implementation of a CRM system at a finance-focused organization, and there’s concern about its impact on the customer experience. You could ask your preferred AI tool:
“What are the top five concerns finance organizations have with CRM implementations related to changing the customer experience? For each concern, explain why it matters and what most organizations do to address it.”
This initial query gives you a solid foundation to explore further. Dive deeper into each concern, asking follow-up questions to clarify details or uncover additional insights.
As you work through the process, don’t hesitate to probe anything that feels unclear. When you think you’ve reached a conclusion, push yourself to ask a few more questions—it’s often in those final queries that the most valuable insights emerge.
How this benefits you:
By using generative AI to create a first draft, you save time for both yourself and your stakeholders while boosting your confidence in addressing business challenges. This preparatory approach is a significant leap on the path from being a Task Coordinator to becoming a trusted Business Partner—and it’s a transition that can happen faster than you might think.
Align Stakeholders Through Co-Creation
Once you have a solid first draft, you can bring the right experts together to validate, refine, and clarify the concerns and proposed solutions, ensuring everyone is aligned. The design thinking approaches you can now apply are inherently generative, building on the foundation you created with AI. This immediately “levels up” the quality of the conversation.
By using AI to draft and evolve a list of common concerns, you’ve already saved your stakeholders significant time. Now, take things further by gathering them as a group:
- Refine the draft list of concerns: Add to or eliminate items on your draft. The goal isn’t to be 100% accurate—it’s to spark a conversation that leads to a co-created list of problems and solutions. Aim for about 80% accuracy to leave room for collaboration.
- Dig deeper into unclear items: For concerns that don’t feel quite right, evaluate whether they’re described at the appropriate level of detail. A simple and effective design thinking exercise is the “Five Whys” technique. By iteratively asking “Why?” five times, you can uncover the root cause of the problem.
- Prioritize the most critical concerns: Once the list is clarified, identify and prioritize the most urgent and important issues. A useful tool here is the Problem Prioritization Matrix, which helps teams focus on what matters most.
These steps not only strengthen the quality of your work but also engage your stakeholders in meaningful collaboration, fostering alignment and trust.
Keep this exercise informal—just have an open conversation. Acknowledge each participant’s contribution to help them see their role in the co-creation process and feel a sense of ownership. Then, share the co-created output with everyone it could benefit, ensuring visibility and impact. These simple steps will align your team more quickly and leave your stakeholders feeling that you successfully guided them on the path to success.
How this benefits you:
Your conversations with stakeholders will become more focused and impactful, while also building your confidence in facilitating generative co-creation workshops in the future.
Be Bold
Our recent report on AI adoption in project management, First Movers’ Advantage, highlights that project professionals leading the way with generative AI (GenAI) are already gaining critical skills that set them apart from those just beginning their adoption journey. The research recommends experimenting with GenAI across various projects, business contexts, and stages of the project life cycle.
While trying new tools and techniques might feel uncomfortable at first, it’s important to recognize that in the coming years, this level of capability will become a baseline expectation. Starting now not only gives your career a boost but also spares your “future self” from unnecessary stress.
Once you’ve explored prompting, design thinking, and co-creation, these generative tools and techniques will feel more natural and easier to apply in your future work.
Remember, success comes from a willingness to try and learn—no one starts as an expert. Every step forward builds your confidence and expertise.
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