In a recent blog on the PM College site, I rounded up a series of articles I’d read recently in the business press, all of which focused on a similar theme: that AI will help us to grow in essentially human skills... and that we will need those types of skills to partner successfully with AI. I strongly recommend that my readers look at all the articles I reference in that blog for an Aha! experience.
This week, I see PMI has added its voice to this chorus, noting on the PMI blog that we need “humans in the loop” to correct and improve AI, now and in the future. But not just any humans will do: we need humans who are thoughtful and skilled in ways that are beyond the scope of AI: humans who are considerate of others, aware of their own biases, actively seeking novel sources of information, creative, and engaged. We humans need to up our humanity!
This is, in many ways, a reversal of what the business and tech workplace have asked of us for the past century. A lot of “scientific management” has focused on reducing or eradicating the intrinsic “peoplehood” of workers—their need for connection, conversation, bathroom breaks, flexibility to deal with personal issues, autonomy, and self-actualization. It’s not just a revolution for workers; this AI-assistant thing will have to be a revolution for their managers, too.
Our 2023 research study on the consultative and interpersonal skills that are important today for project managers is a great place to start to understand your own higher-level skills, as well as identify where you and your teams need to up your game. (There’s a webinar if you don’t want to read the report.)
About the Author:
Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin is Editor-in-Chief of PM Solutions Research, the content generation center of PM Solutions, Inc., a project management consulting and training firm based in Chadds Ford, PA. A frequent presenter on project management research topics, she is the author or editor of over 20 project management books, including two that have received the PMI Literature Award. In 2007, she received a Distinguished Contribution Award from PMI. Jcabanis-brewin@pmsolutions.com
