The Invisible Project Manager

The South Wales and West of England Regional Network were very pleased to welcome Peter Taylor, ‘The Lazy Project Manager’ on 7 July 2026 to this event at BAWA.

Peter’s talk was about the likely impact of the use of artificial intelligence for the project profession. His opening point is why Artificial Intelligence will run tomorrow's projects - without you!
His previous lazy project manager books were focussed on working smarter, not harder, improving your efficiency. 

The use of AI in project management is very dynamic and constantly evolving, and Peter updates his presentation every time. He is very clear that he does not know the end state or where we will end up using AI. We are on the edge of huge change.

AI is very likely to change many PM roles. The jobs people were trained for no longer exist, but there will be new roles and skills needed to get the best from AI tools.

AI can be seen as a threat by some, destroying more jobs that it creates, others consider the opposite view.
We have all seen big business make the assumptive wave, making massive redundances in the name of AI, but where is the evidence to support this assumption. Are big businesses making a big strategic mistake? 
With customer service, we are already used to Chat bots and self-service systems which work very well with Amazon and eBay etc.

Project management is a mixture of science and art/creativity.  AI can easily do the science stuff, the date analysis and report generation. Daniel Susskind argues that all jobs can be broken down into small repeatable component parts, which could be done by AI, which Peter suggests could include creative/art processes.
Peter emphasised that the only important thing is the Project. Everything else merely supports the delivery of the Project. 

Peter posed 5 key questions:

1. Can anyone do PM in an AI empowered project world?
2. In the AI project world, will the certifications and qualifications  of today be irrelevant?
3. Will methodology be a thing of history if AI can enable project managers in a significant way as is predicted in the future.
4. Will project management Bodies of Knowledge exist in an AI cloud of data driven intelligence, rather than in the current sort of disparate siloed manner?
5.  In an AI project world, will the skill set of the project manager be valued?

Another fundamental question with using AI is whether you can trust the output. AI does hallucinate. Who can certify the accuracy?  For instance, who signs off a safely case? – legally it has to be a qualified engineer.  

Where does that stand in the future of AI?

Peter had some ideas for future project roles:

Project Orchestrator: guiding the AI towards the strategic stage, the  technology manages the notes but you're holding the baton, ensuring what’s played matches the business tune.

• Experience Designer: makes sure people feel part of the show and not just audience spectators to an automated machine performance.
• Strategic Outcome Navigator: this impresario role steers towards value, ensuring the AI performs successfully.
• Collaboration Coach: focuses on the digital dancing to the catchy tune where people and machines work together in a positive and productive manner.
• Digital Ethics and Governance Officer: someone must keep the AI honest (no musical plagiarism here) and this role ensures the technology is fair, transparent, and complies to all legal and moral expectations.
• Trust Architect: people won’t follow what they don’t trust therefore this role makes sure AI doesn’t just work but it is promoted in a safe, fair, and clear manner.

The successful introduction of AI tools requires very careful change management with people at the centre. Done correctly the ‘hungry caterpillar’ transforms into a butterfly. Get it wrong!   Garbage in garbage out!
For many simple repeatable projects, sauch as software, roads, the future could be largely undertaken by AI with minimal human supervision to deal with exceptions. Complex one of projects are very likely to still need experienced project managers supported by AI.

Peter sees three phases of AI transformation:

Phase 1 – now – AI as assistant.
Phase 2 – mid-term, 2030 – AI as collaborator
Phase 3 – long term, 2035 – The invisible Project Manager!

Peter outlined 10 key principles, including: projects should manage themselves, humans should focus on innovation, not admin, continuous learning.

But, it must be remembered that there is something that AI cannot do – be human!

Peter does have real concerns. Many younger people rely on sat navs to get around. They have no concept of actual geography or reading a map to plan a route. What do they do if it goes wrong? In the future where does the lived experience come from to fill those senior experienced roles which are needed to sense check AI output to legally certify it when required?

Ultimately the most important thing is the project!

We a had a very lively Q&A and debate to conclude the evening.

Peter has very kindly allowed his presented material to be made available for viewing. The slides on Slideshare are now available in our APM resources area and also embedded below for reference.

Martin Gosden
South Wales and West of England Network