Articles

What You Need to Know About ChatGPT

ChatGPT is here to stay but it’s not replacing your project management job. Still, you need to know what it can do for you and your projects.  

Key Takeaways

• AI-enabled technologies, such as ChatGPT, present opportunities to automate project administration, which can free up project managers to focus on higher value work.
• ChatGPT and related tools need to be used effectively and project managers will need to learn how to do that.
• It will be several years before these technologies are trusted to own planning and communication activities.

PMI Picks provides the following info and tips:

People have been worried about technology taking their jobs away from them for ages. Technology doesn’t eliminate jobs - it changes them. As project managers, we should be used to, and welcoming of, change.

The latest technological headliner is ChatGPT, which certainly represents an interesting advancement. The technology is still in its infancy. With this tool, you don’t have to try too hard to find some significant shortcomings around accuracy and completeness. But the idea that a software application can be used as a project support resource - taking on a lot of the administrative work that a project manager must perform - is appealing, or at least it should be.  

If ChatGPT, or one of the alternatives, can reach the point where it can reliably create project plans, handle routine and one-off communications and monitor approvals, updates and so forth, then it will free up project managers to spend more time on higher value work. That will result in potentially more engaged and empowered teams, greater understanding between the project team and stakeholders and improved awareness of the business context. It will also provide more flexibility for project managers to dedicate time to resolving any challenges or issues that might arise.  

Think of tools like these as evolution rather than revolution. While the technology itself may represent a significant step forward, the application of that technology will simply be the next logical step in automation of project administration. It will be a continuation of the journey, which has already resulted in automatic workflows, on-demand reporting and the like.  

Where I see ChatGPT and similar applications having more impact on project managers is in learning how to use them effectively. The nature of the application is such that good results can be achieved with virtually no training or preparation, but that also means that anyone can get good results with it. To take it to the next level and turn ChatGPT into a great tool, organizations, project management offices (PMOs) and individual project managers will need to learn how to consistently get optimal performance from it.  

No one knows how that can be achieved yet. We’re still all learning how to use it effectively; the tool itself is still in its relative infancy, developing at a rapid pace. You, the individual project manager, have just as much a chance of learning how best to use it as anyone else. I encourage everyone to work with their organization to undertake an experimentation and prototyping exercise around this technology.  

However, recognize that it will still be a long time before these tools have a significant impact on how you manage projects. While the technology is advancing rapidly, it still has a long way to go before being capable of owning key project delivery elements around planning and communication. And it will be even longer before humans - at the leadership and practitioner levels - are willing to abdicate that control to technology.  

As a result, expect to become increasingly familiar with these AI-enabled communication and planning capabilities. Anticipate they will operate in a support role for the foreseeable future - contributing to and assisting the project manager and team - but not solely accountable for any project element. This isn’t a bad or good thing - it’s just the nature of how humans adapt to and evolve with emerging technologies.