Exploring the Effectiveness of AI in Project Risk Management: What Project Managers Do to Facilitate the Changes

The recent launch of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has caused significant changes in the IT industry. Most of the high-performance organizations started to evaluate the possibility of implementing AI as an augment or even replacement of employees due to the powerful capability of AI (McMullen et al., 2022). The way project managers (PMs) handle project risk management also requires review and update to facilitate the AI-driven industry.

This research aims to explore how the current project management professionals should do to adapt their current risk management skillsets to facilitate rapid change in an AI-driven industry considering all the benefits and ethical concerns brought by the implementation of AI.

This study was conducted through a mixed-methods approach: a systematic literature review and survey were performed. Sixty-four survey responses were analyzed after screening and twelve literature resources were carefully analyzed after a systematic search of selected databases. Although no specific resource significantly suggests the necessity of renewing PMs’ risk management skills, the results show the current PMs need to focus more on interpersonal skills than technical skills, be aware of the latest update of AI risk management tools, and stay agile to embrace the changes brought by AI. The survey shows the current PMs’ adoption of AI tools varies in age scale and the current AI tools are not mature enough to perform 100% of project risk management works.