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📧 **PM Deep Dive: 2024 Work Trend Index | 06.06.2024

📧 **PM Deep Dive: 2024 Work Trend Index | 06.06.2024

Report shows Project Managers are leading the AI charge at work. Great job! Now back to work!

Ed Krystosik
June 07, 2024

HI THERE, ED HERE

As project managers, we’re always looking for ways to work smarter, not harder (we already do enough of that).

The 2024 Work Trend Index report from Microsoft and LinkedIn, which I briefly mentioned a few issues ago, shows that AI is a key driver to unlocking new productivity levels AND accelerating our career potential. After spending more time digesting it…

Here are my key takeaways for Project Managers:

AI Adoption is Accelerating

75% of knowledge workers already use AI at work, nearly half starting in the last six months. ¹
79% of leaders agree AI is needed to stay competitive.
Project, Product, and Program Managers are among some of the highest adopting groups in the study (see #3 below).

⁷

AI Skills Are in High Demand

66% of leaders wouldn't hire someone without AI skills. That includes project managers!³
71% prefer a less experienced candidate with AI skills over a more experienced one without.⁴
Early-career talent will be given more responsibilities due to AI.

⁸

"Power Users" Are Reshaping Work with AI

Project Managers, Product Managers, and Program Managers are leading the AI charge at work.⁵
They use AI to start and end their workday more productively.
They experiment with prompts and collaborate with colleagues on best practices.

⁶

To stay ahead of the curve, project managers must:

Proactively learn AI tools and skills, even if your company hasn't provided training yet.
Identify workflow processes to enhance with AI - scheduling, reporting, risk analysis, etc.
Encourage your team to experiment with AI and share learnings.
Advocate for AI strategy and enablement with leadership directly. Last week, I went on a customer visit to Canada (long drive, great poutine!) with my Director, and we talked about AI strategy for hours. Your leadership wants to have this discussion. Lead it!

Here are three simple but powerful ideas you can try today:

🤖 Generating status reports and analytics in seconds
💬 Using AI meeting tools for note-taking, task assignment, and follow-ups
🧠 Brainstorming and problem-solving with AI chat assistants

The best part? You don't have to wait for your company to roll out formal AI training. Top-performing "power user" PMs are proactively experimenting with AI and sharing their favorite hacks with colleagues.⁹

So here's your action plan:

Choose one project management task to automate with AI this week. It doesn’t have to be complex; just get AI-ifying! (Let me know what you work on!)
Set up an informal AI learning group with your PM peers.
Share this email with your manager to advocate for AI as a top priority. (Here’s the link to the full report in case they missed it.)

The most successful project managers in the AI era will be those who embrace the technology early to streamline processes, boost creativity, and upskill themselves and their teams.

Fortune favors action - and AI fluency will be a key differentiator for project management careers moving forward.

Hit “REPLY” and let me know your thoughts. You heard from me, now I’d love to hear from you.

Let’s learn together.

-Ed

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THINGS I FOUND VALUABLE THIS WEEK

Thought leadership from the PMI - Human-in-the-Loop: What Project Managers Need to Know
From Google Cloud - 101 real-world gen AI use cases from the world's leading organizations.
In a past issue, we looked at an AI use case for custom knowledge bases. Since then, many new readers have joined, so I want to share this super cool tool again—Google NotebookLM.

How did you like today's newsletter?

OK. That’s all. Talk to you next week.

-Ed

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AI Disclosures: The content of this email was almost entirely by me, Ed, a human. Some content has been edited by AI for clarity and brevity.