80 percent of today's project management tasks will be eliminated by 2030

By 2030, 80 percent of the work of today’s project management (PM) discipline will be eliminated as artificial intelligence (AI) takes on traditional PM functions such as data collection, tracking and reporting, according to Gartner, Inc.

“AI is going to revolutionize how program and portfolio management (PPM) leaders leverage technology to support their business goals,” said Daniel Stang, research vice president at Gartner. “Right now, the tools available to them do not meet the requirements of digital business.”

Evolution of PPM Market

Providers in today’s PPM software market are behind in enabling a fully digital program management office (PMO), but Gartner predicts AI-enabled PPM will begin to surface in the market sometime this year. The market will focus first on providing incremental user experience benefits to individual PM professionals, and later will help them to become better planners and managers. In fact, by 2023, technology providers focused on AI, virtual reality (VR) and digital platforms will disrupt the PPM market and cause a clear response by traditional providers.

PPM as an AI-Enabled Discipline

Data collection, analysis and reporting are a large proportion of the PPM discipline. AI will improve the outcomes of these tasks, including the ability to analyze data faster than humans and using those results to improve overall performance. As these standard tasks start to get replaced, PPM leaders will look to staff their teams with those who can manage the demands of AI and smart machines as new stakeholders.

Gartner analysts will provide additional analysis and information on PPM trends at the Gartner Program & Portfolio Management Summits 2019 taking place June 5-6 in London and June 17-19 in Washington, DC.