Published
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly emerged as one of the most transformative technologies of our time. With the power to automate complex tasks, process vast amounts of data, and make predictions based on patterns, AI has the potential to revolutionise nearly every industry. However, despite its incredible capabilities, AI won’t change project delivery as much as many people believe, unless we use it to fundamentally transform how we work.
This is a guest blog by Martin Paver, Projecting Success
I work with 60+ different organisations and see first hand how they are getting on. I accept it is still early days but success is grounded in ambition. If our ambition is to automate the dull parts of our jobs, then that is what we’ll eventually deliver. We’ll automate processes that have remained largely unchanged for decades.
Is this the full extent of our ambition? I hear people arguing that AI won’t be able to match human creativity, so our ambition constrains where we deploy it.
But I fear that for most people, their constrained ambition is a product of their level of understanding. Let’s take a really cool tool called Mid Journey. I can type in a prompt and it will produce an image of whatever is in my imagination. ‘Imagine Prompt: A cat with sad eyes on the moon wearing wellington boots with a battle of spaceships in the background’. I loved art when I was in my teens. I had the imagination but lacked the skills needed to make a career of it. But with AI, my creativity is unleashed. It takes a while to craft the prompts and learn how to refine it to get the output needed but it is relatively straightforward.
In this instance, AI isn’t taking a sketch and automating how it is created, it is unlocking a level of creativity I couldn’t previously have imagined. It takes me from being an average artist to producing something that is worthy of the front page of a magazine; in minutes.
The majority of the organisations I work with have constrained their ambition to fixing current issues – for example improving their reporting process or visualising their risk register. I acknowledge that we have to start somewhere, but be ambitious. Start with the low hanging fruit but also run pilots that challenge established norms. Demonstrate that you are open to new ideas, that you’ll push the fundamentals and use these pilots to inspire people.
We’ve been working with the Project Data Analytics Task Force to reimagine project delivery through a series of Visions for 2025. In 2020 we published a white paper setting out to improve project delivery performance x10. The Visions will unlock how this ambition will be delivered.
But if we all try and do this independently we’ll still be trying to do it in 2060. The promise of a silver bullet is attractive, but deluded. The quickest and most effective way to transform the profession is if we unite around delivering these Visions, such as the project assurance example above.
Data driven project delivery isn’t about learning to use new tools. It is about challenging the fundamentals, from the bodies of knowledge through to how we manage our data.
We open the door to pooling our data via non-profit data trusts, so we build the volumes of data needed to train AI in projects. If we develop the capabilities needed to improve data quality, such as automating how a work breakdown structure is created – we can standardise at source.
AI won’t transform project delivery. Humans will, but only if we embrace it and fundamentally reimagine how we work.
But this requires us to have an open mind, be curious, challenge our ambition and most importantly up skill. How can you ever steer a way ahead if you aren’t able to grasp it?
Martin Paver,
March 2023
Project Hack 19
Major Projects Association is sponsoring Project Hack 19 on 19th and 20th June 2023, at the Etihad Stadium (Manchester City F.C.),
Ashton New Road, Manchester, M11 3EF. Members can choose to:
1. Attend the hackathon as a delegate and join one of the teams (or enter your own team) developing solutions – register here or via the link below.
2. Be a challenge owner and provide an issue/opportunity where data analytics may unlock improvements that have proven elusive through other means. Please contact liame@projectingsuccess.co.uk to have your challenge included.
3. Be part of the judging panel – this will involve reviewing solution pitces from a number of the hackathon teams. Contact liame@projectingsuccess.co.uk to volunteer for the judging panel.
We’re sure every one of our member organisations will find at least one of the three ways to participate and benefit from this event. This is a great opportunity to get involved in a very different approach to ‘improving major project outcomes’ and we hope to see you there!
About the author
Martin Paver is CEO and Founder of Projecting Success, founder of the Project Data Analytics Community and of the world’s first project data trust.