AI in project management: 12 uses in the tools you already have

Let us start with the limits. AI will not decide which project matters more, and it will not judge whether it is worth accepting a client’s unusual requirements. Nor will it replace a conversation with a team that is tired and needs clear priorities.

AI is good at something else: it reads long documents, records what was agreed in meetings and spots tasks that have been stuck for a long time. It also prepares first drafts of reports. In short, it takes over information work and leaves the decisions to people.

Below, we divide the twelve uses into three groups: information, tasks and planning, and the team. For each group, we name the tools in which the feature works.

These are activities in which the project manager takes in, rewrites and passes on information. Here AI does the first version of the work, and a person checks it and adds context that AI does not know.

An example estimate: a project manager has eight meetings a week, and writing up notes after each one takes 20 minutes. If AI prepares a draft that only needs 5 minutes of checking, the manager gets back 8 × 15 = 120 minutes, or 2 hours a week. Plug in your own figures.

In this group, AI does not make decisions, but it gives the manager better data for making them. There is one condition: the system must have history. AI relies on tasks the team has already completed and on how long they actually took.

If tasks often have no deadlines and statuses are updated once a month, uses 5–7 will give poor results. In that case, you first need to tidy up how the team works in the tool.

The hardest part of a project manager’s job is people. AI will not lead the team, but it makes several activities around it easier.

For use 9, good results require up-to-date data on holidays and project assignments. For use 12, the assistant only sees what the person asking has permission to see, so tidy access rights are a precondition for security.

The table below helps you choose where to start. The “When it works” column shows whether a use delivers results straight away or only after the data has been tidied up.

The choice of AI tool depends mainly on where the team already runs its projects. Each of the three ecosystems charges for AI features differently, which matters for the budget.

In Microsoft 365, you pay for a Copilot licence for selected people, and Teams Premium adds extra meeting features. Planner has replaced Project for the web, and its Premium version with Copilot now has an agent that helps with planning and reporting.

In Jira and Confluence, the Rovo assistant is included in paid cloud plans, within a monthly AI credit limit. In monday.com, some AI features consume credits, so the cost rises the more you use them. The prices and rules of these packages change often, so check the price list just before you decide.

Switching on every feature at once usually ends with a discouraged team. It is safer to go in three steps and move on to the next only when the previous one has become a habit.

At each stage, measure one thing before you start and again after a few weeks. That way, the decision on the next step rests on figures, not on impressions.

AI notes require a recording or transcript of the conversation, which is personal data of the participants. Participants must know that the meeting is being recorded. For meetings with clients, it is worth asking for consent at the start of the conversation, even if the tool displays a notice.

Use business versions of tools, where the contract rules out the use of data to train models. Free personal accounts do not give you that control, and project documents often contain client data and commercial terms.

Before you switch on an assistant that searches company resources, check the permissions. If the folder with project budgets is open to everyone, AI will show its contents to anyone who asks.

AI reinforces the way of working that already exists. If that way is chaotic, AI will only show you the chaos faster. Below are situations in which it is better to deal with the basics first.