Summary: Artificial Intelligence (AI) went mainstream in 2024. For instance, the Magnificent 7 have replaced FAANG as the gold standard in tech stocks because they work in AI. On a personal scale, every conference we’ve attended this year featured breakout sessions about AI. From software engineers to screenwriters, we’re both awed and wary of how it will affect our careers. That said, AI isn’t coming for your project management job.

Project Management Job Security

Artificial intelligence (“AI”) cannot replace the project manager. But don’t take our word for it: ChatGPT admitted it too. In response to our prompt “Can I replace my project manager with AI,” it wrote back “replacing a project manager entirely with AI isn’t feasible.”

Of course, ChatGPT went on to write about the stuff that AI can do very well:

• Automate repetitive tasks and processes
• Perform data analysis and create forecasting models
• Allocate resources (human or otherwise) for optimal performance
• Write brief memos, manage a calendar, transcribe meetings, and summarize meeting minutes
• Conduct simple conversations as a chatbot

Power Skills

If your project management role is limited to tasks like these, there’s no question that AI will replace you – ChatGPT was just too polite to point it out. Good project managers bring what PMI calls “power skills” to the table – something AI cannot. Here’s how they’re defined in  PMI’s Pulse of the Profession® 2023 report:

Power skills — also known as interpersonal skills or soft skills such as communication, problem-solving and collaborative leadership — are proving essential for project professionals. They are at the heart of leading successful teams, engaging stakeholders and conquering challenges to the project plan. Technical skills enable project managers to chart the path from the start of a project to close, but power skills are how they bring the entire team along for the journey to execute a common vision.

Here are some other tasks that an AI PM cannot do:

• Maintain relationships with various project stakeholders, understand their needs, and manage their expectations
• Adapt to unforeseen challenges like personnel losses or new industry regulations
• Inspire teammates, motivate them, gain their trust, and build consensus among them
• Make ethical decisions based on a common set of values shared by all project stakeholders

PMs get more time to focus on the tasks supporting these functions when they can delegate the pure administrative work.

Ironically, AI is probably going to make PMs with modest technical skills and less-developed organization habits look like rockstars, provided that those PMs already honed their power skills.

Get Started in AI with ClickUp Brain

ClickUp Brain is a collection of conversational, contextual, and role-based AI features available everywhere in ClickUp. It’s an even better way to connect your organization’s people, work, and knowledge. Project managers can harness ClickUp Brain to generate sample project plans, summarize tasks, and dig up minute details from tasks and notes written weeks or months earlier.

Here’s a great overview of ClickUp Brain features targeted at project manager professionals. Services start at an additonal $5/user/month and can be added to your existing ClickUp licenses at any time.

And if you’re new to ClickUp or interested in adopting the platform, check out our ClickUp Resource Library.

About Us

Tuck Consulting Group is a values-driven firm focused on enhancing the project management capabilities of nonprofit organizations and small businesses. Our consultants thrive on dynamic, challenging engagements with clients whose missions align with our own: creating a better world and better outcomes for ourselves and for our neighbors.

Want to make your organization a leaner, greener, and more satisfying place to work? Book a call with founder and Managing Principal, Alex Tuck.

Sign Up For Our Newsletter