Before we talk about prompt engineering, frameworks, or governance, I want to show you why AI is interesting for project managers in the first place.
Many people hear about AI every day. Few actually experience how it makes their work easier. So we're starting with a realistic project and four typical tasks from everyday project work. Not in theory — the way you could actually use it tomorrow on the job.
What you need
- Kai — in the course, your AI assistant is embedded in this lesson; that is where you run the prompts without leaving the page.
- Claude.ai — alternatively, if you prefer to work there directly (claude.ai)
- Optional: Word, Excel, or Google Docs for notes
This lesson takes about 10 minutes. You'll run four prompts — with Kai in the course, otherwise in Claude — and see the results. No prior knowledge needed.
Learning objectives:
- assess which project management tasks are especially well suited to AI
- judge where AI saves time and where human judgment remains essential
- create four key project documents within a few minutes
- understand how the rest of this course is structured
The scenario
Project NEXUS: an AI customer portal at NovaTech Inc.
NovaTech Inc. is a mid-sized IT services company with around 320 employees. This is the same NEXUS project you'll follow throughout the course — here, at its very first quick win.
Sales still handles quotes, status inquiries, and customer communication largely by hand. That costs time, ties up resources, and causes delays. Leadership has therefore decided to introduce an AI-supported customer portal.
The portal is meant to:
- prepare quotes automatically
- handle customer inquiries centrally
- provide status information
- reduce processing time in sales
You're the project lead. The project charter has been approved. The kickoff meeting is in two weeks. Your project starts today.
Task 1: Create a project description
A good project description creates clarity about goals, scope, and constraints. Many project managers spend several hours on this. With AI, you get a structured first draft within a few minutes.
Prompt
Company: NovaTech Inc., IT services provider, 320 employees
Project: introducing an AI-supported customer portal
Goals: automate quote creation, centralize customer communication, self-service for status inquiries
Project team: 1 project manager, 2 developers, 1 UX designer, 1 sales representative
Duration: 6 months | Budget: €180,000
Create a structured project description with: current situation, project goals, scope (in scope / out of scope), project organization, success factors.
Result
Within seconds, you have a complete first draft.
Your job as a project manager begins where the AI leaves off: what's missing? What doesn't fit? What would you make more concrete?
Task 2: Create a status report
Four weeks later, your project sponsor asks for a status report. It's due today. You have only a few minutes.
Prompt
The AI creates: an executive summary, a status overview, a RAG assessment, risks, and recommendations.
Your job: does the RAG assessment match your own judgment?
Task 3: Identify risks
Every project has risks. The challenge is thinking of the right risks as early as possible.
Prompt
Rate each risk by: likelihood (1–5), impact (1–5).
Also create: risk score, mitigation measure, responsible role.
Sort the risks by priority. Create at least 8 risks.
Within seconds, a structured risk register emerges. Your job: which project-specific risks would you add that the AI can't know about?
Task 4: Analyze stakeholders
No project fails because of a missing document. Many projects fail because of poor communication. That's why stakeholder analysis is one of the most important tasks of any project lead.
Prompt
Consider: leadership, sales management, IT management, the data protection officer, sales staff, and the external AI vendor.
For each stakeholder, describe: interests, influence, stance, communication strategy.
The AI creates a complete stakeholder matrix with recommendations. Your job: does the assessment of each stakeholder's stance match your own experience? What would you correct?
What we just saw
Within a few minutes, we created four key project documents:
- Project description
- Status report
- Risk register
- Stakeholder analysis
The quality isn't high because the AI knows everything better. The quality comes from combining:
- your project experience
- your subject-matter expertise
- the AI's speed and ability to structure
The most important takeaway
AI doesn't replace project managers.
AI replaces the time-consuming, repetitive parts of project work. Responsibility, decisions, and leadership all stay with you. But many hours of groundwork can be dramatically accelerated.
That's the thread running through the rest of this course. In the next lessons, you'll learn how generative AI works, where its limits are, and how to use it safely and professionally in everyday project work.
Share your result: if one of the AI outputs struck you as interesting or surprising, share it in the Community (navigation, top of page). Which output was most useful? Which one missed the mark?