- 6.9.2024
* The images in the blog have been created by artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence. It may create an image of robots or programs that make us unnecessary. As a project manager, the thought that algorithms could replace human decision-making and guidance might bring a cold sweat to the surface.
But what if this tech giant, who at first seems alien and threatening, could actually be the best new member of your team? Artificial intelligence could streamline your work, improve project management and free up time for the most important decisions.
In this blog post, our experienced expert Maarit Takavainio shares his own experiences on how artificial intelligence can be effectively harnessed to support the project manager.
As an expert project manager, you get to work with a wide variety of clients and business areas. Artificial intelligence can be a significant help here, as it allows you to quickly absorb new information about both business and technologies. Artificial intelligence analyzes industry information and learning materials, which facilitates a smooth transition from one customer to another.
Artificial intelligence can provide an overall picture of the most common challenges and recent trends in the business area. However, it is important to evaluate the information provided by artificial intelligence critically and make use of your own expertise and the company's experts.
Sample question for ChatGPT "What are the future prospects of the logistics sector in Finland".
Artificial intelligence responds by broadly addressing digitization, automation, green logistics, sustainable development, global supply chains and geopolitical impacts. In addition, it takes into account changes in the workforce, infrastructure and investments.
At the end, there is usually a summary, which for the logistics industry sounded like this: "The future of the logistics industry in Finland is strongly linked to the development of technology, environmental aspects and global economic factors. Companies that are able to adopt new technologies and respond to changing customer demands are expected to be the most successful in the future. At the same time, the industry faces challenges related to workforce, infrastructure and geopolitical changes.”
Artificial intelligence is able to analyze the historical data of an industry or a certain operating model and identify possible risks arising during the project. If you have your first SAP project in front of you, but you have little experience in that environment, you can use artificial intelligence to identify typical SAP project risks.
Question for ChatGPT: "What are the most typical risks of SAP projects?"
Artificial intelligence provides a broad answer for business, technical, organizational and administrative risks. In this way, when planning a project, you can ensure that the capabilities of the organization and the project are sufficient to meet potential challenges and solve them proactively.
When I have encountered a technical aspect of the project unknown to me, I have asked ChatGPT about its implementation in order to get an overall picture of the scope of the work. This helps to understand the scope of the work already at the beginning of the project. In this way, I can make indicative estimates without having to immediately request exact amounts of work from experts.
If the exact priorities of the project have not yet been defined from the business side and the work is done using, for example, agile development methods, artificial intelligence can help identify which features are more interesting for users or generate the most value for the customer in the short term. This guides the team to focus on developing these things first.
Artificial intelligence-based tools can automate part of the communication and make working in projects more efficient.
Example 1: Microsoft Copilot can help you draft emails quickly and professionally. You can give it a few keywords or a general idea and it will generate a clear email ready to send.
Example 2: If you are communicating in a language that is not your native language, Copilot can improve the quality of your communication by correcting grammatical errors, clarifying complex sentences and suggesting improvements. Some of these functions, such as correcting grammar errors, have already been used in Microsoft tools before.
Example 3: In busy meetings where experts are discussing many topics, it can be challenging to get a comprehensive memo of everything discussed. Copilot can prepare accurate meeting notes, summarizing the key points and decisions of the discussion. This summary can then be easily distributed to all participants, which in turn facilitates the monitoring of the project.
The project manager must always take care of data protection, information security and the processing of sensitive data. The client company's sensitive data must be carefully protected and must not be shared with artificial intelligence. You can use closed or local AI solutions where the data remains under the control of the company. It is also possible to use open source models that can be trained and utilized without connection to external services.
Data given to artificial intelligence must not be traceable back to, for example, an individual person. Personally identifiable information should never be shared with artificial intelligence.
I myself have used artificial intelligence for generic things, and I have never identified a customer company. ChatGPT itself also outlines in its answers that you should avoid sharing sensitive data in a conversation for information security reasons.
Also, never share company trade secrets with an AI operating in an open environment or outside of company control.
Artificial intelligence-based image generators have been excellent tools that I have utilized in making various presentations and training materials. With the help of these tools I have created, for example, background images suitable for PowerPoint presentations.
So far I have used two different programs to create images: Replicate and KlingAi. These programs are given prompts that is, a description of what kind of image you want the artificial intelligence to produce.
Example: I made English-language training material about agile development. I wanted to add an image aimed at developers to the background of the PowerPoint presentation and gave the prompt "Screenshot background colorful code on the screen".
Using this image, I created a visually attractive slide for the presentation:
Sometimes it happens that I can't get the image generator to fully understand what kind of image I want. In these situations, I use ChatGPT for help. I asked him: "Would you give the prompts for the image that is the background of the powerpoint presentation. The question is discussed on the slide and a question mark may appear in the picture".
ChatGPT gave several different options, one of which was this: "A minimalist background image featuring a large, semi-transparent question mark in the center or slightly off-center, with a soft gradient or abstract texture in the background. The question mark is subtle and blends with the muted color scheme, leaving Ample space for text overlay while clearly indicating the slide's focus on a question.”
With these prompts, a visually appropriate slide was created for the presentation:
Let's go back to the project manager's work in a changing world. I gave Chat GPT the command: "Can I have prompts for a picture that is comical and shows tired IT project managers who are afraid that AI will take their jobs" and here is the result:
I asked for a more exaggerated image and the result was this:
Artificial intelligence is already here, and its impact on project management is inevitable. Personally, I have noticed that artificial intelligence is not only a work tool—it has developed the way I manage projects, improved teamwork and reduced my stress. But instead of being afraid of the changes it brings, we can ask ourselves: why not embrace this opportunity and use it to shape working life for the better? If AI can make my job easier and more efficient, isn't it time to try what it could do for you.
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