ADVISORY ARTICLE
By Yogi Schulz
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
The work of project managers is challenging because they must juggle many varied responsibilities. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a new tool that creates many opportunities for project managers to improve their performance and that of the teams they manage.
AI helps project managers improve project performance by:
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- Freeing project managers to focus on sensitive tasks that require tact and diplomacy, such as issue escalations and stakeholder negotiations.
- Automating documentation tasks, which often receive insufficient attention because they are boring, to reduce effort without sacrificing quality.
- Identifying patterns to illuminate risks for mitigation before they become expensive realities.
- Performing more extensive technology research than the team has the capacity to conduct.
- Forecasting budget and schedule variances early enough that interventions can be successful.
- Reducing uncertainty in effort estimates to produce more accurate schedule and cost projections.
View AI not as a replacement for human leadership but as an augmentative force—enhancing, rather than supplanting human judgment, creativity, collaboration, and ethical responsibility.
AI presents a fantastic opportunity for project managers to lead both the transformation of the project profession and the digital transformation of their industries.
Because AI is a shiny new tool with a lot of promise, it’s receiving a lot of attention, hype and enthusiasm. It’s easy to overlook that AI is no more than an additional tool in the project manager’s toolkit. The use of AI should never supplant human accountability for final decisions.
The work of project managers can be described in many ways. This article examines how project managers can leverage AI to enhance their performance, particularly in terms of speed and accuracy, across the following aspects of their role:
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How to cite this article: Schulz, Y. (2025). How AI can help project managers improve project performance: Part 1, PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue VIII, August. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/pmwj155-Aug2025-Schulz-How-AI-can-help-project-managers-part-1.pdf
About the Author
Yogi Schulz
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Yogi Schulz has over 40 years of Information Technology experience in various industries. Yogi works extensively in the petroleum industry to select and implement financial, production revenue accounting, land & contracts and geotechnical systems. He manages projects that arise from changes in business requirements, from the need to leverage technology opportunities and from mergers. His specialties include IT strategy, web strategy and systems project management.
Mr. Schulz regularly speaks to industry groups and writes a regular column for IT World Canada and Engineering.com. He has written for Microsoft.com and the Calgary Herald. His writing focuses on project management and IT developments of interest to management. Mr. Schulz served as a member of the Board of Directors of the PPDM Association for twenty years until 2015. Learn more at https://www.corvelle.com/. He can be contacted at yogischulz@corvelle.com
His new book, co-authored by Jocelyn Schulz Lapointe, is “A Project Sponsor’s Warp-Speed Guide: Improving Project Performance.”
To view other works by Yogi Schulz, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/yogi-schulz/
