The role of artificial intelligence (AI) is expanding in every aspect of life. From decision-making to doing day-to-day chores, AI seems to be involved in just about everything. Certainly, it creates opportunities and opens up possibilities for its use in a variety of ways. Particularly, in the aspects of life where processes and routines are somewhat defined or can be visualized, it is much easier to translate them into AI algorithms to build real-life applications. 

Leadership development is one such area where AI is used and can be used for helping people learn leadership skills. While some may argue that leadership is a trait that cannot be taught, and it is a quality that comes with people when they are born (i.e., born leadership). However, it seems more likely that with the right context and tailored environment, leadership skills can be learned and developed, as leadership development is a well-researched area, and ample knowledge is available to discuss in detail how to become an effective leader. Hence, the use of AI for leadership development is a promising avenue to work with.  For the sake of clarity, leadership development is defined as “expanding the collective’s capacity of organizational members to engage effectively in leadership roles and processes in order to produce direction, alignment and commitment (Kjellström, Stålne  & Törnblom, 2020).

Project leadership is an area that can hugely benefit from the use of AI for leadership development to improve management of projects. In particular, as the success of project management largely depends on the availability and effective use of soft skills, benefiting from AI for the development of project leadership skills seems like a logical thing to do. With that said, the question then will be how AI can be used for project leadership development. To answer, below we look at some of the potential uses and the way in which AI can be used for project leadership development.

• Emotional intelligence

One of the key areas of skill development in project management is building emotional intelligence skills. The fact of the matter is that strong skills in emotional intelligence are needed in every aspect for living a successful life. Learning to deal with dependencies and interactions with others is vital to getting things done, both for professional and personal advancement. Emotional intelligence plays a key role in this regard. 

Hence, a successful leader (or a project leader) ought to be highly skilled in emotional intelligence. AI can help in learning things like how to react to a situation, exercising empathy, mindfulness, and managing conflicts and disagreements constructively through scenario-based training. For example, AI-based simulation can be used to train project leaders on how to act and react when a contractor has not delivered procurements as per schedule or violated contractual obligations. A number of AI-driven apps are available to learn to be emotionally intelligent using techniques such as analyzing facial expressions to provide real-time insights to the user about their emotional state and guide them to change their emotional state as needed to improve their performance (at professional and personal levels).

• Strategic thinking

Leaders, including project leadership, need to have skills in strategy development. Therefore, strategic thinking skills play a key role in the success of leadership. AI can assist in building and honing strategic thinking skills, including abilities to build vision, foresight, think critically, and set long-term goals and objectives. A number of AI apps are available that use board games, simulation games, and strategy games to help people hone skills in strategic thinking.

In a project leadership context, project leaders need to think strategically about the impact of the product or service that they are designing for the client or the design of the product/service or the way the project is to be delivered, etc. Given that projects are time-bound endeavors, project leaders have to be always on their feet to think strategically as they transition from one project to the next. As such, the need for the project leaders to be sound strategic thinkers is beyond any doubt. AI tools powered by large amounts of data can play a vital role in helping project leaders learn to be strategic thinkers.

• Team building

Leaders are required to build a team that can take an organization forward into the future. This is even much more important as project leaders hop from one project to another. They have to work with people that they may have never worked with or met before and then gel the people together in a cohesive team to deliver project objectives successfully. Team development requires skills in communication, delegation, setting team goals, motivation, and conflict management.

Fortunately, AI apps are available that simulate scenarios and help people learn team-building skills. The use of interactive games, business decision-making games, and icebreaker games are a few examples of the techniques used to help people learn team building. In a project leadership context, AI apps can help simulate a scenario for project team formation or project team bonding through simulations and board games for project professionals to learn team-building skills in a variety of project environments.

Concluding thoughts: 

The diversity and range of AI applications are growing day by day. It boils down to one’s imagination about how AI can be used to benefit everyone. Leadership development is no exception. Particularly, as leadership development entails building soft skills, AI provides promise and variety in how it can be used to help people learn leadership skills. Powered by data and algorithms, AI can generate scenarios in an interactive manner for people to learn, followed by a real-time test of whether the people were able to learn effectively. The phenomenal power of AI goes beyond imagination (so to speak) in the areas where processes can be defined (loosely or accurately) to do things in an efficient and tailored manner (compared to what a human can do). Training and development is an area that is totally ripe for the use of AI.

Just like general management, AI provides huge opportunities to help project professionals to learn and hone project leadership skills. Given that, we have looked at only a handful of areas in which AI can be used to develop project leadership skills. The fast-paced nature of AI developments makes it easy to find solutions deemed useful in a particular domain context. A large variety of AI-powered apps are available to help people learn leadership skills. The groundwork is there, and the environment is ripe for using some of the currently available apps or getting tailor-made apps for providing project staff leadership skills.

As project management is a soft skills-based approach, the use of AI for soft skills development of project staff seems like a match made in heaven. From using AI to learn to solve problems, think critically, and communicate well to resolve conflicts, unlimited options are on the table. Further, as projects are delivered in all kinds of contexts and environments, AI has the ability to simulate those variations, making it a must-have tool. As such, from every aspect, it seems using AI is handy and effective to enhance skills and improve project success ratio. Needless to say, the areas discussed above are just a few of many in which AI can be used for development of project leadership skills. The discussion herein is just meant to build further discourse on the avenues of opportunities out there for using AI to improve management of projects. 

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and an amazing 2025.

References

Kjellström, S., Stålne, K., & Törnblom, O. (2020). Six ways of understanding leadership development: An exploration of increasing complexity. Leadership, 16(4), 434-460.

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