Projektledarens nya partner : En kvalitativ studie om AI:s roller och dess påverkan i projektbaserade arbetsprocesser

Sammanfattning

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance at a rapid pace, its impact on working life is becoming more noticeable - not least within IT project management. The aim of this study is to develop a deeper understanding of the use of AI tools within project processes. This is achieved by examining project managers’ attitudes towards the use of AI in their professional roles. The study also aims to contribute a first step towards identifying and defining the roles that AI can assume within project management. The research is based on seven semi-structured interviews with IT project managers and uses two main frameworks: the three-component model of attitudes and a self-developed four-quadrant framework, which relates AI´s role to project structure and risk level. Building on insights from previous literature, this study identifies and formally defines four distinct AI roles: organizational memory, assistant, monitoring and decision-support. While earlier studies have only indicated these roles, this study offers a framework for their analysis. The findings indicate that project managers' attitudes are closely connected to both the extent and nature of AI use. A positive mindset, technical understanding, and prior experience encourage active use, while limited knowledge, lack of support, or low trust in the technology may hinder adoption. The results show that three of the four roles are present in the practice. The monitoring role was absent in the empirical data, likely due to low trust in AI systems. Furthermore, AI´s role appears to be shaped more by individual and contextual factors than by project structure alone. This study contributes to the research field by filling a knowledge gap regarding the roles AI can take in project management - through identifying, naming and analyzing roles previously implied in the literature.