PMI publishes an annual report named Pulse of the Profession, described on their website as:
Pulse of the Profession® is our annual thought leadership report that charts the latest trends and developments in the project management space to help you work smarter.
However, a search of the latest three reports (2023, 2024, and 2025) for mentions of artificial intelligence turns up nothing. Is this a sign that LLMs and the debut of ChatGPT in November 2022 have had no impact on project management?
On the other hand, PMI has dedicated a portion of its website to AI, published AI-related reports and online trainings, and—through a collaboration with OpenAI—introduced Infinity, a project management–focused GPT trained on PMI’s knowledge base. PMI even offers a certification for AI now. Are these signs of the growing importance of AI in project management?
PMI’s latest GenAI adoption report, titled The Project Professional’s GenAI Journey (the third report in the series), discusses how organizations can move from small gains (like increased productivity on routine tasks) to more advanced productivity levels by implementing GenAI tools in project management environments. The report identifies two critical factors for this progress: preparedness and initiative.
Superagency
What’s particularly notable about these “Two Pillars of GenAI-Led Transformation” is that they place the burden of transformation squarely on the shoulders of project professionals. Yet McKinsey’s research suggests a somewhat different picture: it finds that, contrary to business leaders’ assumptions about the slow uptake of GenAI tools among employees, usage is actually much higher. This January 2025 dated report concludes that, “Employees are more ready to embrace AI in the workplace than business leaders imagine.” Now, it is people at the executive level who need to play their role.
Quoting from Reid Hoffman’s book title, the workforce is approaching a future in which every individual is empowered by AI—boosting creativity, productivity, and impact to achieve a state of “Superagency.” Although PMI notes that productivity can rise through the automation of routine tasks, the superagency state represents an additional leap by fueling creativity alongside productivity—a shift especially crucial in contemporary project environments, where innovation and impact go well beyond mere task efficiency. Clearly, then, there is more to explore about AI beyond what PMI has highlighted thus far.
The Cybernetic Teammate
Novel research has started to reveal exactly that. A working paper published by Harvard Business School, titled “The Cybernetic Teammate: A Field Experiment on Generative AI Reshaping Teamwork and Expertise,” argues that the most important ingredient in a project—teamwork—can be enhanced, or even replicated, through GenAI. Exploring whether GenAI can effectively fill human roles in teamwork, the researchers evaluate three dimensions: enhancing performance, bridging functional expertise, and reshaping collaboration patterns.
The study was supported by P&G, which granted the researchers access to its R&D teams under controlled experimental conditions. The control group was an individual without AI access. Researchers then compared four scenarios:
- A solo individual without AI access
- A two-person team (one technical, one commercial) without AI access
- A solo individual with AI access
- A two-person team (one technical, one commercial) with AI access
Enhancing Performance
In the enhancing performance domain, the study’s data underscore that AI enables individuals to achieve output quality on par with traditional two-person teams, confirming the notion that AI can effectively stand in for a human teammate under certain conditions. By measuring solution quality across four configurations (individuals without AI, teams without AI, individuals with AI, and teams with AI), the researchers observed that both individuals and teams significantly boosted their outcomes when aided by AI. In fact, individuals equipped with AI not only matched the quality levels of teams without AI but also substantially reduced the time required to complete tasks—spending about 16.4% less time compared to the control group. This hierarchy of performance highlights how incorporating AI can amplify both quality and speed, validating that the presence of AI plays a transformative role: it replicates the collaborative benefits of teamwork while demanding fewer human resources.
Bridging Functional Expertise
In the bridging functional expertise domain, the study shows that AI can help close skill gaps and broaden idea generation across different professional backgrounds. For instance, “non-core-job” employees—those who do not regularly perform product development tasks—typically lag behind “core-job” employees when working solo or even in teams without AI. Once AI is introduced, however, these non-core-job individuals achieve performance levels comparable to teams that include at least one core-job specialist. This finding highlights AI’s ability to “democratize expertise,” effectively substituting for the guidance or collaboration such employees would otherwise rely on. Additionally, in examining idea-generation trends among commercial and technical participants, the presence of AI erased the usual divide between commercially oriented and technically oriented thinking. While participants initially proposed ideas aligned with their backgrounds, AI assistance led them to generate more balanced solutions without compromising quality. Collectively, these results underscore AI’s power to foster interdisciplinary thinking, ensuring that individuals with varied expertise can effectively collaborate—and even operate solo—without sacrificing creativity or effectiveness.
Reshaping Collaboration Patterns
The presence of AI appeared to boost participants’ enthusiasm and engagement, effectively reshaping collaboration dynamics. Figures 7 and 8 from the study show that individuals and teams using AI reported significantly higher levels of excitement, energy, and enthusiasm, while also experiencing less anxiety and frustration. Specifically, individuals with AI saw a 0.457 standard deviation increase in positive emotions (p < 0.01) compared to those without AI, and teams with AI showed an even larger 0.635 standard deviation increase (p < 0.01). Interestingly, solo participants aided by AI matched or exceeded the positive emotional responses of traditional teams. This finding indicates that AI can substitute for some of the emotional benefits of teamwork, functioning as a collaborative partner even in individual work settings. Moreover, those who reported more positive experiences with AI were also more likely to anticipate using it in the future, suggesting a feedback loop between emotional engagement and adoption.
Nature of Tasks
Notably, the tasks in this research were not repetitive; they required creative, knowledge-based work—core elements in modern project environments. Both Superagency and The Cybernetic Teammate studies point to a future that extends well beyond automation or simple process optimization. Instead, AI is already a part of daily workflows, offering new opportunities for innovative problem-solving and collaborative growth. This transition underscores that while GenAI certainly boosts efficiency, it also brings a vital dimension of creative potential that can profoundly impact how project teams operate and succeed.
In the early days of GenAI, I—like many project management professionals—thought of it primarily as a new tool at our disposal. Time, however, has proved us wrong. Much of the initial reaction stemmed from the worry that this “newcomer” might render us obsolete. Instead, GenAI represents a new paradigm we must adapt to, not just in day-to-day tasks but also in how we interpret the world. Seemingly overnight, everything changed—and as project professionals, we must keep pace. GenAI is not a rival; it is a companion, and it brings its own rules that are nonnegotiable. Regardless of what institutions formally declare, the reality is here and now.
References
- Dell’Acqua, Fabrizio et al. “The Cybernetic Teammate: A Field Experiment on Generative AI Reshaping Teamwork and Expertise.” Harvard Business School Strategy Unit Working Paper No. 25-043, 2025. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5188231.
- McKinsey. “Superagency in the Workplace: Empowering People to Unlock AI’s Full Potential at Work.” January 2025. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/superagency-in-the-workplace-empowering-people-to-unlock-ais-full-potential-at-work?. Accessed on April 5, 2025.
- PMI. “AI Impact.” https://www.pmi.org/learning/thought-leadership/ai-impact. Accessed on April 5, 2025.
- PMI. “Pulse of the Profession.” https://www.pmi.org/learning/thought-leadership/pulse. Accessed on April 5, 2025.
- Hoffmann, Reid, Beato, Greg. “Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future.” Simon and Schuster, 2025
