| APM Salary and Market Trends Survey 2025
Artifical intelligence
As artificial intelligence (AI) advances, the implications for project management grow
47%
Our survey shows that 47% of respondents agree that AI is currently having an impact on project management and their organisation
The impact of AI in
project management
Respondents say the single biggest impact of AI is the automation of routine tasks (27%), followed by enhanced data-driven decision-making (17%) and additional valuable insights (11%)
Barriers to AI take-up
in project management
These are some of the tangible benefits that AI brings to project management right now, but our survey shows that there are barriers to its wider adoption
The biggest barrier is a lack of understanding of these benefits (32%), followed by a fear of data breaches (14%) and then a lack of or inadequate regulation of its usage (11%).
The latter is a particularly contentious issue, with international consensus around the technology proving impossible to find. The EU’s cautious stance of using guardrails around AI to protect against risk conflicts with the US’s more libertarian approach (with the UK somewhere in between).
These are universal barriers and concerns common to every profession and every sector, yet project management is already experiencing the everyday benefits that the technology can bring. There appears to be a keen appetite for greater understanding and experimentation to reap some of the efficiencies it brings, so how can these benefits be understood by a broader project management audience, particularly those project professionals higher up in organisations, who are the ones less likely to believe that AI is already having an impact?
AI trends in
project management
Our survey shows that project managers who earn a base salary of £70,000 or more are much less likely than those who earn £35,000 or less to believe that the technology is already impacting on project management within their organisation.
The rise of AI will change the balance of skills required by project professionals in the future, so every project manager would benefit from understanding how it’s currently being used in their organisation and the possible implications it might have.
As Mike Bourne, Professor of Business Performance at Cranfield University and Managing Editor of the APM Body of Knowledge 8th edition, explains: “AI will change some jobs. In lower-level jobs around project controls, the admin is going to come out, which is what AI should do.” At the more senior level, however, the challenge will be how to manage AI as well as people. Partly that means helping overcome fears around the technology so that people work with it rather than fight against it. “No one wants to be working for a computer, but you do want the computer to help you,” says Professor Bourne.
“47% agree that AI is currently having an impact on project management. At the same time, quite a few are having difficulty understanding how to use it”
Daniel Armanios, BT Professor of Major Programme Management, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
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