This event is taking place at University College London (UCL), Lecture Theatre 115, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HB
While short-term, midterm, and long-term predictions are hard to make, we will attempt some here, as we are by nature a curious lot. After all, we are project managers, so we don’t just predict the future, we deliver it!
AI is the new kid on the block, the new disruptor, but it does not look like the previous disruptors; this one seems to move much faster and affect more industries than previous disruptors; but is this true, or are we magnifying its effect because we cannot yet see when the disruptor will abate as we arrive at a new normal?
We have been living within a technological revolution for some time now as the digital age we have created sends us wave after wave of now propositions. Is AI the tsunami we imagine, or just another of those waves?
AI is not the first, and will not be the last, technological upheaval. We have faced many such upheavals throughout our history, and we have not only endured them all, but we have used them to improve our lives. Every time a new invention arrives, it renders many skills obsolete, but many more skills are born as a result. Now that we drive, we no longer need to know how to ride – and the price of a car is not that different from what the price of a horse used to be.
The presentation will use PMI’s Talent triangle as a map to discuss which skills are the most perishable, which are durable, and which the most enduring. In other words, which skills will be heavily influenced by AI and which still have a shelf-life.
The presentation will try not to focus on ethical AI issues or provide PDoom predictions. Instead, it will hopefully end on a high note; not a dystopia nor a utopia, just a protopia. We will of course ask AI itself to tell us which skills are vulnerable to its own assault, as I hope you are doing if any of the terms in this paragraph are new to you. Remember, curiosity. Please bring your own ideas to the presentation.
The target audience is project managers, project leaders, budding young project managers, mentors, and educators.
Speaker
Nick Lambrou is an Emeritus Fellow of the University of Westminster. He stumbled into project management through IT and has been an educator all his life. Among others, he has managed responsible projects to set up universities in the Sultanate of Oman, India and Uzbekistan, which, needless to say, were not all successful, but they were all worth it. Nick believes that everything humans have done was once a project, however small or big. In addition, most organisations turn to project managers for answers, advice and ideas. This means that project managers have power to influence the environment we live in, and that with power comes responsibility. AI is not (yet?) responsible, we are.
