Artificial intelligence is beginning to change not just the tools used to execute projects but also the skills expected from the people running them. That shift will be a central theme at a project management conference in Bengaluru next month, where industry leaders and professionals will examine how organisations can keep up with increasingly complex projects.
The 18th Project Management South Asia Conference (PMSAC26), scheduled for October 3 at The Leela Bhartiya City, is expected to bring together more than 700 project professionals, industry leaders, academics and policymakers.
The meeting comes as India steps up its investments in infrastructure, technology, manufacturing and digital transformation. As projects become larger and more complicated, organisations find the need to balance technology with people, decision-making and execution capabilities.
AI is adding another layer to that challenge. It is increasingly influencing the way organisations approach planning, decision-making and execution, raising questions about how project managers themselves will have to adapt.
The conference, themed “MORE Together – Future-Ready in the Age of AI”, will discuss AI adoption alongside the future of work, leadership, workforce transformation, business transformation and infrastructure delivery.
The conference will also reflect a wider evolution in the project management profession. Earlier editions have featured figures including former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and E. Sreedharan.
For Amit Goyal, the regional managing director for South Asia at Project Management Institute (PMI), the challenge facing India is broader than technology adoption. He said the country's next phase of growth would require professionals capable of navigating complexity, making sound decisions, bringing different stakeholders together and translating strategy into execution.
The speakers at the event include author and columnist Chetan Bhagat, Amity University online chairman Ajit Chauhan, leadership trainer Neeraja Ganesh, Grant Thornton Bharat chief learning officer Ankit Jhamb, Kyndryl's Ravi Dikshit, Novo Nordisk VP and MD John Dawber and IBM Consulting's Usha Srikanth.
This year's discussions are likely to centre on how organisations can bring technology, leadership and talent together as India takes on projects of greater scale and complexity. The larger question is whether rapid technological change can be matched by the human capabilities needed to turn ambitious plans into successful projects.
