5 AI Tools That Will Replace 99% of Project Management Work - AI for Project Managers | PMPwithRay

Hello everyone, welcome to today's video. So here is a question I have been

video. So here is a question I have been getting a lot lately from project management community. Okay, Rey, how are

management community. Okay, Rey, how are you actually using AI in your day-to-day project management work? And I get it right, we are constantly hearing about

how AI will revolutionize project management and eliminate project managers and so on, right? But most of the content out there is either too

theoretical or focuses on fancy tools that costs thousands of dollars or maybe trying to solve something just for the sake of it. Let's be honest. Now let me

be very clear about something up front, right? AI is not going to replace

right? AI is not going to replace project managers. Okay? You see, project

project managers. Okay? You see, project management is fundamentally a soft science, right? not mathematics or

science, right? not mathematics or coding. It's about human relationships,

coding. It's about human relationships, emotional intelligence, stakeholder dynamics, and navigating complex

organizational politics. Right? AI can't

organizational politics. Right? AI can't

negotiate with an angry client. It can't

read the room during a tensed steering committee meeting, and it certainly cannot inspire a demoralized team to push through a challenging delivery

phase. Right? However, on the other side

phase. Right? However, on the other side of the spectrum, what AI can really do brilliantly is to handle repetitive data

heavy and administrative tasks that often consume 40 to 50% of our time as project managers. So, for example, it

project managers. So, for example, it can analyze patterns, generate reports, draft communications, and provide decision-m support. However, the

decision-m support. However, the strategic thinking, relationship building and leadership that is still

entirely on us as project managers and will still be with us as human project managers. Okay, at least for now. So in

managers. Okay, at least for now. So in

this video today, I will walk you through five practical ways in which you can use AI as a project manager in your day-to-day life to save at least 12 to

15 hours of your weekly effort and thereby making you a more productive project manager. And it's my guarantee

project manager. And it's my guarantee that if you watch this video till the end and apply even 50% of what you will learn from this video, you will be

better than 99% of the project managers out there in the market. That is my vision for this video. So let's get into it. So let's start with the first way I

it. So let's start with the first way I am using AI as a project manager.

Meeting management and documentation.

Now, this is probably the most transformative application I have implemented. Okay? And I'll be honest

implemented. Okay? And I'll be honest with you guys, it's also the area where AI really poses the most direct threat to certain project roles. Okay? So,

listen very carefully. See guys,

traditional meeting management used to consume hours of my team's efforts.

Okay? recording discussions,

transcribing key points, identifying action items, assigning owners, and then following up. Right? It was a massive

following up. Right? It was a massive administrative burden. And these tasks

administrative burden. And these tasks are typically performed in the industry by roles such as project support officers or project clerks. However,

with AI tools like Microsoft Copilot or OT.AI AI and Claude, you can revolutionize this process completely.

Here is what could be an AI savvy project manager's workflow. During

project meetings, Microsoft Copilot or OT.AI automatically captures everything. Not

just the transcription, but it identifies the speakers, extracts action items, tracks attendance, and even highlights key decisions. Within minutes

of the meeting ending, you will have a structured summary out of copilot that in a usual situation would have taken the project support officer at least 2

to 3 hours to create manually. In the

next step, you then feed this input into co-pilot or chat GPT to generate polished meetings of minutes formatted according to the organizational

standards with the cleared action items, owners and deadlines. The entire process would need at least 2 to three hours as I was discussing for a PSO or a project

clerk. Okay? And now it should not take

clerk. Okay? And now it should not take you more than 15 minutes to do it yourself or maybe improve the productivity of your PSO or project clerk by adhering to this entire

workflow which is AI enabled. Now here

is the uncomfortable truth. Roles like

project support officers or project clerks whose primary responsibilities include meeting documentation, minutes of meeting, actions and follow-ups are

genuinely at risk. These administrative

functions are being automated away and organizations are starting to question whether they really need dedicated resources for these tasks. Now I'm not

saying that these roles will go to zero.

Okay? But project teams who used to have three or four project support officers to manage these kind of stuff will now be having only one PSO managing the

same. So that's AI driving productivity

same. So that's AI driving productivity in project management. Moving on, the second way I am using AI as a project manager and this one has been a complete

gamecher for me personally using AI to learn and master new project management tools particularly MS project and

advanced Excel spreadsheet analysis. Now

guys, here is the reality we all face as project managers. Okay, we are

project managers. Okay, we are constantly expected to be proficient with the multiple software tools but uh most of us don't have the luxury of

taking formal training courses or spending weeks learning complex functionalities within these tools right this is where AI can become your

personal tutor and coach okay for example if you don't know MS project or Microsoft project but you need to use it for preparing a project schedule and

track the critical path. You can use Google's AI studio as your personal tutor to help you learn this from scratch. Now, although I am quite savvy

scratch. Now, although I am quite savvy with MS Project because I'm using it for the last 10 years or so, however, time and again I might forget a command or a

shortcut or let's say a particular function within MS Project. And for

these use cases, I regularly use Google's AI Studio to help me navigate the bumps. Trust me, it's a better way

the bumps. Trust me, it's a better way than just googling the problem because uh AI studio can actually see your screen and your onscreen open

applications via screen sharing and it can guide you real time because it can really see your cursor movements and guide you to click this button and then

select this option etc etc. I would recommend that there are a lot of videos on YouTube on how to use Google AI studio and uh please go ahead and watch those videos to have a better

understanding of the entire process with which Google's AI studio works. Now in a second scenario where AI really shines in data management is an Excel

spreadsheet analysis tools like again Google's AI studio or numerous.ai AI have revolutionized how project managers can approach data analysis. For example,

with numerous.ai, AI, you can simply type the natural language questions like let's say which project phases are consistently over budget or uh show me

the resource utilization patterns across all the active projects in a spreadsheet and it will analyze your spreadsheet data instantly without you needing to

remember complex VLOOKUP or HLOOKUP formulas or pivot table configurations within Excel. The key insight here is

within Excel. The key insight here is that while AI doesn't replace the need for you as a project manager to understand the tools fundamentally but

it can accelerate the learning process for you as a project manager dramatically. I have definitely reduced

dramatically. I have definitely reduced my software learning curve from months to weeks now allowing me to focus on strategic project decisions rather than

technical software limitations using the tactics which I mentioned. Now, let's

talk about the third way I'm using AI as a project manager. And this one has literally saved a lot of my effort on multiple occasions. Using AI to quickly

multiple occasions. Using AI to quickly summarize long, okay, very long email chains and generate instant project status updates when sometimes leadership

demands immediate answers. Okay, so

let's work this with an example, right?

Picture this scenario. You are in a steering committee meeting and suddenly the sponsor asks, "Oh, what was the current status on the fire safety upgrades project? I've been copied on a

upgrades project? I've been copied on a dozens of emails this week from finance compliance and your team. What's going

on, Mr. Project Manager? Now, you know that uh there has been a floody of email communications back and forth between contractors, facilities team, and

compliance officers over the last few weeks, right? Your Outlook has been

weeks, right? Your Outlook has been inundated with emails coming back and forth, but you haven't had time to digest all the details. Okay, which is very natural. This is where AI becomes

very natural. This is where AI becomes your lifesaver. Okay, so here is my

your lifesaver. Okay, so here is my actual workflow when I'm faced with such situations in real life. Firstly, when I get an email on Outlook, I categorize it

as per projects. Okay, this is the first crucial step. If you don't know how to

crucial step. If you don't know how to categorize an email into project folders within Outlook, please go ahead and watch a few YouTube tutorials on this

topic. Now, after this step, anytime

topic. Now, after this step, anytime anyone asks me for an update, I take those 20, 30, 40 email chains which is now within the project folder within

Outlook. And these emails might

Outlook. And these emails might sometimes span weeks and months of back and forth discussions, right? and I take the entire dump and put it into

Microsoft copilot or chat GPT or claude whichever I am using as per my organizational policy. Okay. Now when

organizational policy. Okay. Now when

Microsoft copilot has the full email dump of the last 30 40 50 emails which are emails replies reply on replies reply on reply on replies right so all

of them once they go into Microsoft copilot I write a very simple prompt asking a project summary and status update and within 30 seconds I have a

concise executive level summary that covers the key decisions made outstanding issues budget impacts and the next steps. This works just like

magic, guys. The beauty of this approach

magic, guys. The beauty of this approach is that AI doesn't really just summarize, okay? It identifies patterns,

summarize, okay? It identifies patterns, highlights critical decisions, and extracts actionable items that might be buried in lengthy technical discussions

across those email chains, which you surely would have missed. This

capability has really transformed how I handle stakeholder communication in my projects. Instead of spending hours

projects. Instead of spending hours manually reviewing email threads to prepare status reports, I can now provide realtime updates to leadership

making me more responsive and valuable to the organization as a project manager. Right? If you are finding this

manager. Right? If you are finding this video helpful guys, please hit that like and subscribe button to this channel PMP with Ray. It helps me to understand that

with Ray. It helps me to understand that you value this type of practical real world content to help you grow as a project manager. Now let's move on to

project manager. Now let's move on to the fourth way I am using AI as a project manager and this one has completely transformed how I deliver training programs as a project manager

and that is using AI tools like GMA and Napkin.ai to create professionallooking training materials for project management concepts. You see guys, as

management concepts. You see guys, as project managers, we are often expected to conduct training sessions for our teams and stakeholders, right? Whether

it's explaining the five phases of a project life cycle, demonstrating various project methodologies like agile or hybrid or waterfall or let's say

teaching concepts like lean management and six sigma. Creating engaging,

visually appealing presentations used to consume weeks of my time as a project manager. Now, here is how my old

manager. Now, here is how my old workflow used to look like. Okay? I'd

spend hours on Microsoft PowerPoint, manually creating bullet points, searching for relevant images on Google, struggling with smart arts to build

process diagrams, and wrestling with auto shapes to create flowcharts.

A simple presentation on uh let's say agile risk management would take me 6 to 8 hours to create okay across multiple

sessions and frankly the results looked quite amateur or rudimentary in spite of all the effort that has gone into the

presentation. However, now with tools

presentation. However, now with tools such as GMA AI, I can create a complete 10 to 20 slides of training presentation

on agile risk management fundamentals in under 30 minutes. I simply input my topic, let's say agile project risk management for cyber security teams.

Let's say that's my topic. And within

seconds, as you see on screen, GMA generates a professionally designed presentation with the relevant content, structured flow, and beautiful visuals that would take me days to create

manually. Okay. Now, on the other side

manually. Okay. Now, on the other side of the spectrum, where napkin.ai really shines is in creating complex diagrams and charts that explain project

management concepts visually. For

instance, when I needed to explain let's say the critical path method during a recent uh training session, I simply pasted the text explanation of critical

path method into napkin.ai and it automatically generated a professional flowchart with the proper network diagrams, dependencies and critical path

highlighting as you see on screen. Now,

what would have taken me at least 1 to 2 hours of manual research and uh text inputs and diagram creation in PowerPoint just happened in less than 60

seconds. Of course, like any other AI

seconds. Of course, like any other AI tool, the outputs might need a bit of refining after it has generated the first draft according to your needs, to

your audience, and to your organizational standards. However, I

organizational standards. However, I cannot really deny that GMA and napkin has helped me immensely to prepare professionallooking training materials

in lightning fast speeds. Now, finally,

let's discuss the fifth and perhaps the most strategic way I am using AI as a project manager. And this one will

project manager. And this one will probably surprise you because it's something most project managers never consider. using AI to prepare

consider. using AI to prepare comprehensive risk registers, executive summaries, value engineering assessments and best value option analysis. Now

guys, uh this is where AI becomes truly powerful for project management decision making. Okay. However, there is a word

making. Okay. However, there is a word of caution and I need to give you a critical warning up front. This strategy

is completely dependent on the quality of your input data and the project context you provide into your AI platform. Now if you feed garbage into

platform. Now if you feed garbage into this AI tools, needless to say, you will get garbage out. Okay, which can lead to catastrophic project decisions or

complete phase loss for you as a project manager in steering committee meetings.

So only use this tactic if your project input data is rich and comprehensive.

Now here is how I have been using this workflow successfully for risk register development. I feed charge GPT or

development. I feed charge GPT or Microsoft copilot detailed project information including scope, timelines, stakeholder profiling, technical requirements and organizational

constraints. For example, during one of

constraints. For example, during one of my projects with my previous organization, I provided chart GPT with our project charter, technical specifications, contractor profiles, and

all the regulatory and legislative requirements. The AI then generated a

requirements. The AI then generated a comprehensive risk register with the 47 potential risks categorized by probability and impact complete

mitigation strategies and the contingency plans for each of the 47 or 48 risks that the AI identified. Now

this is the perfect document for setting up your PID or the project initiation documentation as a project manager right during the initiation or the starting up stages of a project. However, the key

here was providing the complete context, right? I didn't just say or write on the

right? I didn't just say or write on the text as a prompt that okay, create a risk register for a fire safety project, right? Because that would have been

right? Because that would have been catastrophic. I provided very specific

catastrophic. I provided very specific details. This is a 2.3 million fire

details. This is a 2.3 million fire safety upgrade project across four hospital buildings involving asbestous containing materials 24 into7

operational requirements CDM 2015 and htm compliance and a six-month delivery window during winter months and I uploaded all the relevant SOPs and

standards and project beef and outline business case and stakeholder profiles.

Okay, all of them into my initial command within the chatbot and that is the exact level of detail what transforms a generic AI output into

actionable project intelligence. That is

how you use AI as a project manager and it also can free up your time as a project manager more to focus on items

which AI really cannot do. Okay, such as uh driving alignments within stakeholders or across different departments or let's say dealing with a difficult stakeholder or motivating a

frustrated team member, right? Because

these human interactions are the key deliverables of a true project manager which at least for now AI cannot supersede. So your goal as a project

supersede. So your goal as a project manager should be always to explore ways to become more productive with the help

of AI because this is what the truth is.

Okay. AI will not replace all project managers. However, it will find ways to

managers. However, it will find ways to get the job of 10 project managers done by using one project manager who is

super efficient, super AI savvy and super productive. The choice is really

super productive. The choice is really yours whether you want to be that project manager.