CFP Project Management Journal - The Transformative Power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Project Management Work Environments

[aehchua at gmail.com]

The Transformative Power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Project
Management Work Environments

This special issue focuses on the profound impacts of AI on project
management, particularly on the planning, execution, and monitoring of
projects and programs, and the consequent implications for project
organizations, human resources, and society as a whole.  The special issue
builds on previous editorials outlining avenues for academic and
practitioner developments in the area of AI and project management (Geraldi
et al., 2024; Müller et al., 2024).

 

Guest editors (see Appendix <>  A):

Vered Holzmann, School of Management and Economics, The Academic College of
Tel Aviv-Yaffo.

Hila Chalutz-Ben Gal, Faculty of Engineering, Bar-Ilan University.

Alessandro Margherita, Department of Engineering for Innovation, University
of Salento.

Cecil Eng Huang Chua, Department of Business and Information Technology,
Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA

 

Aim and Scope:

Over the past decade, AI capabilities have significantly advanced,
fundamentally changing how we interact with technology and impacting the
future of work and society (Agrawal et al., 2022; Arslan et al., 2022;
Gruetzemacher & Whittlestone, 2022; Sharma, 2023). AI is now driving change
in many sectors, including project management. Projects are often seen as
'agents of change' (Huemann, 2022; Locatelli et al., 2023) and AI and
digital systems offer powerful opportunities to enhance how projects are
managed and executed, especially in a scenario of increasing project
complexity (Elia et al., 2021; PMI, 2024b, 2024c; Secundo et al., 2022). AI
affects various aspects of project management, including project selection,
prioritization, definition, planning, reporting, and virtual assistance. It
also introduces new roles for project managers. Research suggests that AI
will profoundly impact the project management profession, raising questions
about job displacement and workforce transformation (Nieto-Rodriguez &
Vargas, 2023; Stang, 2020; Svanberg et al., 2024).

 

AI is not new, and established AI techniques are well integrated into
project domains including scheduling, budgeting, procurement, risk
management, and quality management (Bento et al., 2022; Borges et al., 2021;
Hashfi & Raharjo, 2023; Martínez & Fernández-Rodríguez, 2015; Taboada et
al., 2023). However, emerging AI developments are going beyond these
improvements to transform project management practices on a broader scale
(Holzmann et al., 2022; Kanbach et al., 2024; Müller et al., 2024;
Niederman, 2021; PMI, 2024c, 2024b). AI is expected to play a major role in
managing complex adaptive systems, decision-making, and organizational
change, requiring the establishment of AI training programs and the
encouragement of technology assimilation across all levels of the
organization of (Donovan, 2024; Gokce, 2023; Obradović Posinković & Vlahov
Golomejić, 2024; Ranger, 2024). Yet, the potential benefits of AI come with
ethical and moral concerns, particularly around job transformation, data
privacy, bias in algorithms, and potential misuse of AI (Bryson, 2020;
Etzioni & Etzioni, 2017; Shaw, 2019). As AI evolves, project managers must
adapt how we manage and govern projects (Birkstedt et al., 2023; PMI,
2024a).  New skills and competencies will be required of both project
managers and team members (Chalutz-Ben Gal, 2023; Nilsson, 2024). 

 

Generative AI (GenAI) and Explainable AI (XAI) are two emerging AI subfields
with significant potential for reshaping project management. GenAI focuses
on creating new content and solutions (Epstein et al., 2023; Feuerriegel et
al., 2024), while XAI seeks to make AI systems more interpretable and
trustworthy (Arrieta et al., 2020; Chalutz-Ben Gal, 2023; Gunning et al.,
2019; Notovich et al., 2023). These technologies offer opportunities to
enhance project management practices across various industries (Dwivedi et
al., 2021; Makridakis, 2017). GenAI can support project managers by
generating initial project plans, which human experts can validate and
refine (Barcaui & Monat, 2023). XAI can facilitate better understanding and
transparency in AI-driven decision processes, increasing trust among project
stakeholders in complex project endeavors (Colombo et al., 2019; Joamets &
Chochia, 2020; Johnson et al., 2021). While much of the rhetoric has been on
how these technologies will replace humans, there is evidence suggesting a
better approach is coproduction where GenAI and XAI assist and enable the
human in project work (Trist, 1981).

 

The transformative impact of AI on project management is vast and requires
further research to understand its full implications. For instance,
observing AI-driven processes can offer new insights for project managers,
similar to how chess players learn from AI-driven chess matches (Deverell,
2023).  There is also potential for project professionals to learn new
things about project work from observing AI or agent-based simulations and
appreciating their limitations to maximize the benefits of coproduced human
and AI work, as demonstrated in the FoldIt project, where humans
complemented AI's weaknesses in figuring out how proteins fold (Koepnick et
al., 2019; Wikipedia, 2024). 

 

In this special issue, we aim to explore how AI will shape and change the
role of the project manager and the project management profession, how it
will impact project organizations and project work environments, enhance
project performance, and contribute to stakeholder value, including societal
goals like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental,
Social, and Governance (ESG). It seeks to provide insights into the
implications of human-AI interactions in projects, from the strategic level
to the individual level. 

 

Potential Topics of Interest

We invite theoretical and empirical contributions on various aspects of the
transformative power of AI on project management. Design science works
describing new AI-based artifacts applied in novel ways to make projects
more productive are also welcome. We encourage interdisciplinary studies,
critical perspectives, evidence-based research, strong theory discussions,
and diverse methodological approaches that would significantly contribute to
project management theory and practice (Geraldi et al., 2024; Müller et al.,
2024; Müller & Locatelli, 2023). 

 

All papers must make a clear contribution to our understanding of project
management. Further, all submissions should demonstrate strong theoretical
motivation and contribution and be supported by empirical evidence or
thoughtful reasoned argument. The goal of the special issue is to encourage
innovative and interesting research at the intersection of project
management and AI. Thus, (for example) research where the principal focus is
applying machine learning or other algorithms on a data set is discouraged
as is research on project management and AI in domains where the literature
is already saturated. Theoretical papers must adopt a nuanced perspective
and critically evaluate their reasoning. Papers discussing experiences
implementing AI in projects, even if unsuccessful, are welcome so long as
the paper provides critical, actionable, theoretically and empirically
grounded lessons for research and practice.

 

The Special Issue suggests the following research themes: 

 

Research theme 1: AI and the changing nature of project work

*	To what extent are the roles and responsibilities of project
managers and team members changing, and how will AI involvement shape the
work humans do in projects? 
*	To what extent should project management processes and workflows be
redesigned to integrate AI technologies? What are the implications of
redesigned processes on the role of PMOs and other supporting functions? 
*	What ethical frameworks, principles, and guidelines should govern AI
systems' development and deployment? How should concerns around bias,
fairness, non-discrimination, and intellectual property rights be addressed
when using AI? What mechanisms should be put in place to ensure liability,
accountability, and assignment of responsibility when AI systems are
involved in project decisions or processes? In what ways can the use of AI
reduce human-introduced cognitive bias in project management?
*	In what ways can AI contribute to sustainability transitions by
projects? How can AI be harnessed by grand challenge projects to address the
SDGs? What are the implications of AI advancements for projects in
developing countries and disadvantaged settings?

 

Research theme 2: AI and humans in digital project environments

*	How are interpersonal relationships and team dynamics changing with
the integration of AI? 
*	To what extent can AI technologies be harnessed to foster creativity
and innovation? How can the adoption of AI contribute to problem-solving for
projects' gains?
*	How can AI systems be designed and integrated to optimally augment
and collaborate with human team members in projects? 
*	How should project labor and tasks be divided between AI systems and
humans? What levels of autonomy should be granted to AI systems in different
project phases? How does the interpretability of AI decisions (XAI) affect
human decision-making in projects?
*	What are the key factors that influence trust, transparency, and
effective interactions between AI systems and human participants? What are
the human factors that should be considered in human-centric interfaces for
XAI in PM tools?
*	What organizational conditions support the effective adoption of AI
in project management?

 

Research theme 3: AI and project performance

*	How can AI enhance project productivity and performance?
*	How should project-based organizations redesign their strategies,
processes, and structures to effectively leverage AI capabilities to improve
performance? What AI-enabled approaches can be developed to dynamically
adjust project strategies in response to emergent changes or disruptions?
*	What are the opportunities and challenges in using AI for project
planning, execution, monitoring, and controlling? What are the implications
of applying AI in agile vs. waterfall projects?  
*	What new metrics can AI introduce for measuring and controlling
project success? In what ways can AI be used for effective project
monitoring and control? 
*	How can AI improve decision-making across the project lifecycle? In
what ways can AI help address the limitations of human decision-makers in
projects?

 

Paper format

We advise authors to read the guidelines to authors and recent editorials in
the Project Management Journal to learn more about the requirements of
papers submitted to the journal. It is important that submissions address
problems and issues that are central to our understanding of projects,
project-based organizations, or project-based work. 

 

We appreciate first round submissions to be no more than 8000-10000 words
excluding references, tables and figures. 

 

Timeline

Deadline submission 1 June 2025. Please select submission to "AI special
issue". Submissions are made in the Manuscript Central at the Project
Management Journal. 

Decision on first round of reviews 1 September 2025

Deadline submission 1 December 2025

Decision on second round of reviews 1 February 2025

Submission of final submissions 1 June 2026. Papers available online 1
August. 

Expected publication of special issue, November-December 2026




 

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