5 AI Features Transforming Strategic Project and Portfolio Management

From smart home devices and GPS to wearable technology and personalized streaming, artificial intelligence (AI) has quickly become a part of our daily lives. Its growing presence is also evident in business, with nearly a quarter of businesses aggressively pursuing AI integration. According to Salesforce, automation in particular helps 74% of employees save between 4 and 28 hours weekly.

As AI continues to boost productivity—automating time-consuming tasks like resource allocation and reporting, for example—the question arises: How will AI transform project and portfolio management? And higher up, how will AI transform strategic portfolio management (SPM)?

This article explores both these questions, revealing the 5 AI features poised to revolutionize business strategy and execution.

AI in Project Management, PPM, and SPM

Let’s recap some essential definitions:

• PPM is a tactical approach for helping project management offices (PMOs) efficiently manage and prioritize a portfolio of projects.
• SPM takes a higher-level approach, focusing on effectively tying project portfolios, resources, and budgets with strategic business goals.

That said, you don't have to choose between PPM and SPM; both can greatly increase productivity and ROI for your business, in different ways. While most PMOs will engage with PPM at some level, not all are mature enough to support SPM right away. But when the time is right, AI-enabled SPM can do wonders to drive your organization’s strategic goals

AI Features in Strategic Portfolio Management Software

As more organizations digitalize their project, program, and portfolio management with SPM tools, potential buyers should know which AI-enabled features to prioritize. While not an exhaustive list, we'd like to begin with GenAI, anomaly detection, predictive analytics, particle swarm optimization, and chatbots.

How Generative AI Will Transform Project Management

Generative AI analyzes historical data, its training, and human feedback to spot patterns, make predictions, and create novel ideas and solutions. This can enhance SPM by:

• Analyzing past project data to generate potential future scenarios based on multiple, complex variables and presenting them to users via dashboards for comparison.
• Assessing the impact of upcoming projects and portfolios on the business’s goals and making recommendations to ensure strategic alignment and the best ROI.
• Recommending solutions and generating new ideas by combining several sources, including project data, best practices, trends, and more.

When selecting a generative AI provider, consider the associated security and data privacy risks. With Planisware, for example, users can introduce AI in a controlled way, ensuring authority over outgoing data. Users can also define the AI use cases they’re interested in, implement them when ready, and deactivate the AI-enabled technology at any time.

How AI-Enhanced Anomaly Detection Will Transform Project Management

Data anomalies in project portfolios can indicate misalignment with the broader business strategy, creating noticeable issues for SPM practitioners. By introducing AI-enabled technology, organizations can improve anomaly detection by:

• Uncovering hidden trends that business analysts might miss
• Providing deeper insights into anomalies' root causes
• Analyzing data and flagging issues in real-time for faster intervention

How AI Predictive Analytics Will Transform Project Management

Predictive analytics use predictive modeling to forecast future demand, timelines, and outcomes, benefiting SPM users by:

• Offering real-time updates to improve data accuracy and maximize productivity
• Analyzing large datasets from multiple sources to support efficient, informed decision-making
• Assessing projects’ strategic impact to allow teams to focus on highest priority initiatives

How Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Will Transform Project Management

Inspired by the behavior of social creatures (like insects and birds) that work together to achieve optimal outcomes, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) helps PMOs optimize portfolios, boosting efficiency, accuracy, and continuous development by:

• Handling multiple, diverse, and sometimes conflicting objectives at once
• Adapting to changing portfolio priorities, enabling greater agility
• Leveraging predictive analytics and real-time data updates for informed decision-making

How AI Chatbots Will Transform Project Management

In a PPM landscape, AI chatbots can help automate routine tasks and improve cross-team knowledge sharing. At the next level, in strategic portfolio management spaces, they help project teams stay informed and aligned by:

• Enhancing and facilitating communication through natural language processing (NLP)
• Reducing information silos with real-time, accessible project data and recommendations
• Reducing delays and improving information flow with quick responses to stakeholder questions

Discover more about Planisware’s AI assistant, Oscar, here.

Maximizing ROI on AI-Enabled SPM Tools

If you’re looking for greater ROI from AI, it’s time to view it as more than just a tool for process automation. When used effectively, AI features can elevate your projects and portfolios' strategic value, expedite results, and support more confident decision-making—all important considerations when selecting and implementing a strategic portfolio management tool.