By Jorgelina Bross-Puglisi
September 18, 2025
What if your next project manager wasn’t human at all, but an AI bot? The idea sounds futuristic—but it’s closer to reality than most of us think. Let us imagine what this would look like.
The Morning Briefing
Anna strolls into the office with a double espresso, already rehearsing how to soften the bad news about delays.
Betty has already scanned 10,000 data points, sent dashboards to everyone’s inbox, and rescheduled three tasks.
The Midday Decisions
Anna calls a vendor, listens to their excuses, remembers they saved her project last year, and grants a small extension. Relationship intact, trust preserved.
Betty cross-references the contract, sees “holiday” wasn’t a valid excuse, issues a penalty, and reassigns the scope in milliseconds. No favors. No exceptions.
The Afternoon Motivation
Anna notices tired eyes in the room, cracks a joke, praises last week’s work, and reminds the team they’re building something meaningful. Energy spikes.
Betty sends a push notification: “Productivity down 12%. Please improve.” The team sees the numbers but feels nothing. No spark, no connection, no reason to go the extra mile.
Anna is a “human” PM, while Betty is an “AI bot” PM.
Would Bots Make Better Project Managers?
When Albania recently appointed Diella, the world’s first AI “minister” of public procurement, it sparked more than political debate. It opened a fascinating question: if a government can entrust an algorithm with multi-million-euro tenders, could organizations one day hand the reins of project management entirely to AI bots?
Imagine a world where Gantt charts update themselves, budgets never spiral, and risks are predicted before they materialize. No more overdue reports, no biased vendor selections, no endless administrative follow-ups. The perfect project manager, perhaps?
A Hybrid Future
Project management is people management. An AI bot may predict a delay, but it can’t walk into a room, look people in the eye, and rebuild morale after a missed milestone. AI can’t motivate, empathize, or rebuild trust after a failure.
Also, efficiency doesn’t equal fairness. An AI might always select the cheapest supplier, ignoring community impact or sustainability goals. AI struggles with trade-offs involving values, culture, or community impact.
When a project fails under a human PM, accountability is clear. If an AI bot makes a call that costs millions, who takes responsibility? Cultural acceptance, legal questions, and trust barriers remain high.
Rather than replacing humans, the most realistic future is collaboration. The most feasible model is to think of AI bots as super-assistants: tireless, objective, data-driven co-pilots.
So… Would It Make Sense?
In some ways, yes.
A world of AI project managers is not only technically possible but in some areas already here. The real question is not whether AI can manage projects, but whether it should.
The real value lies in AI as a co-pilot. A tireless, objective assistant freeing human PMs to do what only humans can: lead, inspire, and adapt. A fully AI-driven PM world is technically possible but culturally and ethically questionable.
Project management has always been about balancing process with people, numbers with nuance. The bots may one day keep our projects perfectly on time and under budget. But only humans can keep them meaningful. At least, this is what I hope.
Sincerely, your human Project Manager
Trainer & Consultant
International Institute for Learning (IIL)
Jorgelina is an accomplished industrial engineer, project manager, and consultant with solid international experience in various industries. She has conducted numerous projects in more than 15 countries in Latin and North America, Europe, and Asia. She is a results-oriented leader, with excellent communication and facilitation skills.
