Artificial Intelligence (AI) is moving full steam ahead. It’s definitely a tool project managers should start to use and keep an eye on.
Currently, I use Zoom’s AI Companion to summarize meetings in the background while I take notes. It does a decent job but makes errors such as misspellings. I use the AI Companion to supplement my notetaking in case I miss some details. The tool needs to be more accurate before I can rely on it to send the meeting summary directly to the team at the conclusion of a meeting.
The project management software SmartSheet that I used previously now has AI features for Enterprise users. Their website states “Leverage the power of AI to automate repetitive tasks, uncover valuable insights, and streamline your workflows.” Future features include “Portfolio insights” and “People Insights”. I’m not a current SmartSheet user but any feature that can help find information or provide insights will be time saving and valuable as project portfolios become more complex. It takes time to manually search for data and to create data.
For project managers who are members of PMI, you can use their tool called PMI Infinity. It uses 14,000 pieces of content from PMI. From PMI.org, “PMI Infinity delivers interactive and detailed responses citing the original sources, creating a conversational and trusted experience. Project professionals can use PMI Infinity to boost and reinforce their understanding of complex subject matter, all while leveraging the newest technology.” I’ve used PMI Infinity to research topics from the PMBOK which saved me time from searching a digital file or flipping through a physical book. I’m looking forward to how this tool evolves.
The most powerful AI models are being developed by the leading AI companies. Most charge a monthly fee but you can access older AI models for free. One option is to use DuckDuckGo’s AI Chat feature after searching for a topic using their search engine. From there, you can select from ChatGPT (created by OpenAI), Claude (created by Anthropic), Llama (created by Meta), and Mixtral (created by Mistral AI). DuckDuckGo states the following, “Your chats are private, anonymized by us, and not used to train AI models.” This is okay if you don’t need to save your conversations. I recommend trying each model. You will notice a difference in the responses. Some responses are robotic while others are more human-like; as if conversing with an actual person. You can go down a rabbit hole and get more nuanced if you wish or change the conversation to related topics. These models are fun to use and a critical tool to have in your toolbox.
Please share your experiences using AI to manage projects.
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