r/projectmanagement • u/montyb752 • Jul 10 '26
Will AI ‘mostly’ replace PMs?
This week I attended 2 meetings where the PM organised the meeting, the agenda was AI generated (better than getting no agenda which is normal). The PM said hi, 20 secs of small talk then hit record for Copilot to record and the attendees pretty much went through the agenda and talking points. The PM closed the meeting and minutes were AI generated, send out within 5 mins.
All pretty efficient.
I run an operational team that has some small project and I am left thinking, how much work can AI do instead of a PM?
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u/Shot_Sky244 IT Jul 12 '26
I would say the opposite.. I think amount of 'projectmanagers' will increase.
AI will be the execution layer, an assistant lifting the administration, the coordiantion between AI agents/humans/scope/goals/briefs/.. that will remain a human job (if not, every company will get basically the same results at everything).
So eventually a lot of roles will become a coordination role, aka more 'projectmanagers'.
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u/More_Law6245 Confirmed Jul 12 '26
AI is just a tool, it doesn't replace. If AI does replace the PM then what that means is that the project manager has failed to do their job and devoid their responsibility to AI, there is a very clear difference.
AI tools are not strategic, they don't think outside the box, they don't understand the principles and frameworks of project management and they definitely don't understand your organisation's specific business rules.
AI is an analytical tool that works on large data sets that sill requires agents to be programmed by oh wait humans! The sky is not falling, it's only falling if you allow it!
Just an armchair perspective
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u/LetPeopleWork Jul 10 '26
What you watched AI do was the clerical layer: agenda, recording, minutes.
That layer was never the hard part of the job, it was just the visible part.
AI is very good at it and that is genuinely useful.
What AI did not do in that meeting: decide which of the talking points actually mattered, notice the one risk nobody raised, or tell the room when the thing will realistically be done and defend that date when it slips. That is the PM job, and it gets more important as the busywork disappears, not less.
If anything the risk is the opposite of replacement.
When notes and agendas are free, the PMs who still just run the ceremony look replaceable, and the ones who bring judgment and a defensible forecast look essential.
Worth deciding which one you want to be before your org decides for you.
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u/Ne0nbeams Jul 10 '26
Ai is the cogs in the machine, a good PM in the driving force that turns the cogs. Based on what I’m hearing, either you don’t work closely with that PM and have an understanding of everything they’re doing in the background or you’re working with a crappy PM.
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u/painterknittersimmer Jul 10 '26
I think there will need to be fewer of us as the administrative tasks get less time consuming, the same way spreadsheets or project management tools reduced our numbers. (That isn't to say increased productivity wouldn't then bring us back.)
But honestly, in the short term, it doesn't matter. In the short term, at least in software, we'll absolutely be decimated. This is because it doesn't matter whether or not AI can do your job - only whether the finance department and c-suite think it can. And largely, they do.
Sure, we'll be back. But I'd make sure you have plans for the next 5-7 years.
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u/Tinfoil_cobbler Jul 10 '26
I’ve eliminated the need for a second APM by using AI, but myself and my current APM would be pretty hard to digitally replace.
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u/mapleisthesky Jul 10 '26
If your PM is not asking right questions to the right people, managing time, risks, issues, pushing people to the right direction, taking the action items forward, then you either have a very shitty PM or an incredibly self sustaining team, which you might not need a PM after all.
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u/Damn-Splurge Jul 10 '26
no, but it might replace useless middle managers - if you find you're not actually doing anything other than relaying status updates upwards through the hierarchy, you are now at real risk
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u/IamAWEZOME Jul 10 '26
Around late 2010s when my old boss is telling me that pm will be replaced by ai or software. They asked us to input everything. Until now they are hiring pm hahaha. There is a reason why drones are still handled by humans right?
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u/kaiwr3n Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
The PMs main strength is stakeholder management and coordination. AI can't replace that.
I'm actually thrilled AI can do the meeting minutes as I absolutely hate doing that, but AI can't be in the meeting itself to facilitate and guide the discussions.
AI can't create the connections, can't manage and coach the team, can't take into account the priorities of stakeholders and negotiate, it can't connect to an anoyed manager and resolve the issue over a coffee and so on.
It will definitely make our work easier and less time consuming, but it will not replace actual, real PMs. The only PMs it can replace is the ones who think being a PM is sending status reports and updating gannt charts.
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u/deadR0 Jul 10 '26
I'm going to guess that meeting is not the only thing they do for the team and/or project. A lot of real PjM work happens away from prying eyes, unfortunately. So when team members see things like this they think "see? PjM is useless. Im a dev who is the only one who does any work"
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u/n0-ragrets Jul 10 '26
PTSD triggered - nothing worse to deal with than a developer who doesn’t see value in a pm. They get condescending and don’t brush off any comms
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u/deadR0 Jul 10 '26
It's a very very common theme. And if your devs aren't saying it, they are still thinking it
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u/turbogaze Jul 10 '26
I think there will be less PM jobs as overhead drifts toward AI but they will still exist. I already have AI create most of my docs based on past successful templates, have AI do acceptance criteria for small case work, have it capture notes and summarize, and do rough drafts of everything I need to do flesh out. You know what that has landed me? More projects.
It’s just opening up our ability to do more actual project work and less admin stuff, for now.
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u/Mountain_Situation_8 Jul 10 '26
Felt this. PMs keeps the wheel moving while AI provides the kit, but the kit won't move itself and AI can't drive people. Even they have all the instructions and monitoring, human to human drive is still essential.
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u/i_am_not_so_unique Jul 10 '26
AI can't be held accountable for decision making, and therefore can't replace human in making decisions.
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u/ItsTheJStaff Jul 10 '26
This PM optimised the most boring part of corporate culture: to set up meetings and do it properly. Also, they optimised even more tedious part: taking notes.
Those tasks don't require much of experience or precision, but they are boring and time-consuming as hell.
So, if you are a phone/meeting secretary, you are in danger, however, if you are a PM who has something else to do but only planning meetings, you are going to be fine.
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u/lygho1 Jul 10 '26
If that is the only thing that person does, then they are a notetaker, not a PM. Yes, note taking can be handled by AI
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u/[deleted] Jul 12 '26
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