Beyond Binary Success: Professor Adam Boddison on AI and the Human Future of Project Management

In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and project management, few voices are as insightful as Professor Adam Boddison, Chief Executive of the Association of Project Management (APM). We recently had the pleasure of hosting Adam on the Project Flux podcast, where he shared his unique perspective on how AI is reshaping the project profession and why human skills might become more valuable than ever.

A Journey Through Education, Hypnotherapy, and Project Management

Adam's path to project management leadership is anything but conventional. Before his current role at APM, his career spanned education and even clinical hypnotherapy—a qualification he pursued after noticing how mindset affected students' performance.

"I realised that there are young people in schools who are excellent when they're learning something in lessons. Then they go into an exam and they can't replicate the brilliance that they've got in the classroom," Adam explained. This observation led him to explore neuro-linguistic programming and hypnotherapy techniques that help people "get in the zone" during critical moments—a skill equally valuable in the project world.

What connects these seemingly disparate career chapters? For Adam, it's about solving problems and creating societal benefit: "Everybody I meet who's in education and everybody I meet who's in projects, they're in it for kind of the same reason. They want to make the world a better place. In projects, it's one project at a time. In schools, it's one lesson at a time. But the underpinning principle is the same."

Moving Beyond Binary Success and Failure

When asked about why projects fail, Adam challenged the premise of the question itself. "I think we're a bit obsessed with success and failure and it's quite binary, isn't it?" he observed. "The real world isn't binary like that."

He illustrated this with a thought-provoking example: imagine an IT project delivered perfectly on time, within budget, and to specification—but by the time it's completed, the world has moved on and it no longer delivers benefits. "So it delivers all the outcomes, none of the benefits. So what are we saying about that piece of work? Is that a success or is it a failure?"

Instead of this reductive framing, Adam proposes a more nuanced question: looking back with the benefit of hindsight, would you still have invested in that project? This perspective acknowledges the reality of unintended benefits that weren't in the original business case and takes the long view that's often missing in project evaluation.

This long-term perspective reveals a fundamental tension in project planning: the desire for certainty (fixed costs and outcomes) versus the need for value (which requires innovation and risk). As Adam put it: "To get the value that they're talking about requires innovation, requires risk, requires probably using technology that doesn't exist at the moment." Yet the people making these decisions aren't usually the ones who must justify cost overruns years later—a disconnect that complicates project governance.

The State of AI Adoption in Project Management

The APM's recent salary survey revealed a striking generational divide in AI adoption: early-career professionals are embracing AI tools far more readily than senior executives. "The anticipation about the impact that AI will have is much lower at the executive end than at the kind of lower end in workforce," Adam noted.

This creates an unusual dynamic where, unlike previous technological innovations, the workforce is experimenting with AI in their personal lives before bringing it into professional settings. "You've got all of these individuals who are trying stuff out at home... But they're not allowed to try stuff in the workplace because of all the fears and anxiety," Adam explained. The result is "shadow AI"—unofficial use that organisations can't monitor or control.

Adam shared an illuminating anecdote about APM's own approach to Microsoft Copilot adoption. When staff asked for guidance on how to use the tool, the IT department's plan was refreshingly simple: ask Copilot itself for ideas on how to use Copilot. This exemplifies the mindset shift needed—from seeing AI as a complex technology requiring extensive training to viewing it as an accessible tool that can guide its own use.

APM's Approach to AI

As the professional body for project management, APM faces a strategic question: should it develop AI tools specifically for project professionals, or should it focus on helping members become comfortable with commercially available tools?

"Over time we've probably landed that our role is on the latter because we're not a software house," Adam explained. "No amount of money that we could put into this is going to be as good as what's going to be freely available."

Instead, APM is concentrating on building "capability, capacity, confidence in the technology" through resources like skills guides tailored to different project roles. They've also collaborated with the Major Projects Association, Number 10, and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority on a data analytics and AI strategy for publicly funded projects.

A particular challenge for APM is determining where to focus their efforts across the spectrum of adoption. "You've got the evangelists at one end who are about 10 years ahead of everybody else. And there's not many of them," Adam observed. "Then you've got this long tail of people mostly who have an appetite, who want to learn, and then there's the kind of naysayers at the other end." The question becomes: where should APM invest its resources to move the profession forward most effectively?

The Environmental Cost of AI

One concern that surprised Adam was the low awareness of AI's environmental impact among project professionals. According to the APM salary survey, only 1% felt environmental sustainability was an issue in relation to AI.

"I think it's like a ticking bomb," Adam warned, citing statistics about AI's resource consumption: "Every 30 to 50 uses of something like ChatGPT uses the equivalent of a 500 millilitre bottle of water to cool the data centre. And for each [AI-generated] image, it takes the equivalent energy of half of a smartphone charge."

These environmental costs raise important questions about appropriate use cases. "If I'm using the technology to find the cure for cancer, there's a pretty strong business case for that," Adam reasoned. "If I'm using it to write bedtime stories for my five-year-old, that's pretty unconvincing." Yet society lacks clear guidelines on where to draw the line, with most people "waiting to be told" what constitutes responsible use.

The challenge becomes even more complex when considering how AI intersects with other emerging technologies. "What happens when quantum computing comes along?" Adam asked. "The power that that's going to take—the AI looks small compared to that. And when those things start combining with each other, we're getting into orders of magnitude beyond what we're even thinking about at the moment."

Will AI Replace Project Managers?

When confronted with Gartner's prediction that 80% of project management tasks will be AI-driven by 2030, Adam's response was clear: "No, in short." He acknowledged the implication that only 20% of the role would remain human-delivered but drew an important distinction: "When you're talking about tangible tasks, that's different to the kind of intangible impact." It's the human interaction skills—what APM calls "soft skills" and PMI terms "power skills"—that often determine whether a project succeeds.

While AI excels at identifying optimal solutions, Adam pointed out that in human systems, the mathematically optimal approach isn't always the right one. "Often when you're dealing with people, it's not about doing it perfectly. It's about all of the other things that are going to influence how they think, how they feel." He illustrated this with the familiar scenario of hiring decisions, where gut feeling often overrides scoring systems.

Interestingly, Adam suggested that as AI takes over more routine aspects of project management, human involvement might become a premium feature. "Does the fact that the human part of projects kind of changes over time actually make it a premium feature of projects going forward?" he wondered, drawing a parallel with how handwritten letters have gained new value in a digital world.

This could lead to market differentiation based on delivery approach: "It won't be too long in the future before you get a consultancy somewhere saying their selling point will be, 'Don't use AI.'" Some clients might prefer and pay extra for fully human project teams, particularly for people-centred projects like building a nursery for children.

Advice for Project Professionals

When asked what failure had taught him that success couldn't, Adam reflected on the importance of ethical decision-making. "We can all talk good values and good ethics, but it's only when you really make a decision that is ethically questionable... and it plays on your mind" that you truly learn from mistakes.

For project professionals navigating the AI revolution, Adam's advice is balanced: embrace the technology's capabilities while recognising the enduring value of human judgement and connection. The future belongs to those who can effectively combine both.

The Future: More Human, Not Less

Perhaps the most counterintuitive insight from our conversation with Adam is that AI might make project management more human-centred, not less. As algorithms handle routine tasks, the distinctively human elements of the profession—ethical judgement, relationship building, intuitive decision-making—become more valuable.

"What's incredible is, funny enough, we're going to do full circle," as our host James observed. "The thing that we're all going to have to get better at, whether as project managers or just as human beings, is the human skills, the communication skills, the emotional intelligence."

In this vision of the future, AI doesn't replace project managers—it elevates them, freeing them from administrative burdens to focus on the aspects of the role where human judgement truly adds value. And in that future, organisations like APM play a crucial role in helping the profession navigate this transformation with confidence.

Want to stay updated on the latest in AI and project management? Subscribe to the Project Flux newsletter for weekly insights, tools, and expert perspectives. You can also connect with Professor Adam Boddison on LinkedIn and explore APM's resources on AI in project management.