Good project management was always collaborative intelligence

When I stepped into a more formal project management role at Razorfish (many, many years ago), everything looked impressive. The role was clear. The process was formalized. The plans were done in MS Project. The financial reporting spreadsheets were pristine. Tasks were assigned. The numbers rolled up neatly. There was even a resourcing manager.

And yet, something felt off for me.

The work was siloed. Direction was shaped in side meetings that didn’t always include the people actually doing the work. Progress was tracked carefully, but the project's through-line sometimes felt assembled after the fact. Don't get me wrong, it all worked. It just didn’t always feel...connected.

That experience clarified something I’ve believed ever since: project management only works when the thinking is shared.

Planning as shared thinking

When I build a plan the way I believe in building one, it doesn’t start in a tool. It starts with a messy outline or sketch.

Then I bring it to the team, and we talk through how we actually want to do the work. Sometimes what I outlined works, and we move on. Other times, we debate approaches, surface risks, discuss assumptions, and brainstorm alternatives that didn’t exist five minutes earlier.

That meeting usually creates energy. I think the reason I love this approach is people lean in when they’re shaping the work instead of receiving it. That builds crazy levels of accountability within a team. So, I'd rather work with them to rough out a plan first.

Only after that do I move it into a project management tool and formalize it. And even then, it goes back to the team line by line. Timing. Dependencies. Roles. Capacity. What breaks if this slips?

The plan becomes something we built together.

It keeps you honest about the timeline, the budget, the tradeoffs, and whether the project is actually aligned with its goals. It forces you to confront whether everyone understands what they just agreed to. That isn’t administrative work. It’s collective intelligence.

Status meetings as alignment resets

Status updates work the same way.

Yes, I cover what happened last week and what’s happening this week. I update the timeline, percentage complete, and budget usage. I surface risks and decisions. That structure matters. It creates visibility.

But the real work starts when something doesn’t quite add up.

When a timeline looks technically fine but feels tight. When someone agrees a little too quickly. When a risk gets mentioned casually and then brushed aside. That’s the moment I slow the room down.

I pause. I ask the question everyone is avoiding. I call out the tension instead of pretending it isn’t there. I make sure we’re aligned on what’s actually happening, not just what the slide says.

Reorienting a team around reality instead of momentum is what being a present, proactive project manager actually looks like. It’s not flashy. It won’t impress anyone in a dashboard. But it’s often the difference between a project that quietly drifts and one that holds up under pressure.

Where AI fits

All of that becomes more interesting now that AI can generate the artifacts for us.

It can draft a plan in seconds. It can produce a polished status report. It can list risks and propose timelines with confident language that sounds convincing in almost any room.

That’s not a threat. It’s a tool.

A tool that I use in a lot of ways. When I’m brainstorming, I’ll throw ideas at it and ask for reactions. I’ll test how a specific audience might interpret something. I’ll run scenarios or ask it to challenge my assumptions. As a solo operator, it genuinely expands my thinking. It gives me angles I might not have considered and helps me pressure-test ideas before I bring them to real humans.

But it doesn’t replace the humans.

It can accelerate the output. It can’t replace the judgment. I still decide what’s accurate, what’s nuanced, and what actually matters. I still have to bring the thinking back to the team and work through it together.

What concerns me isn’t AI itself. It’s how shallow we might be with it.

Some PMs are ignoring it entirely. Others are using it as a glorified note-taker. Summaries and draft emails are fine, but that’s surface-level. The more interesting work is using AI to stress-test assumptions, explore tradeoffs, and prepare for the conversations that actually shape the project.

Project management has always been about facilitating shared understanding and negotiating reality together. AI can support that process. It will never be a substitute for it (at least right now in 2026, I don't think that is a possibility...?).

And while I'm on my grandpa rant, I just want to add that if efficiency ever starts replacing engagement, we should pause and ask what we’re optimizing for. Because clearly it wouldn't be about the people at that point.

I’m not worried about AI taking project management jobs. I’m interested in whether we use it to elevate the thinking behind our work. I've said it 100 times: Anyone can generate a plan. Not everyone can help a team face reality together.

By the way… PM Squad

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There’s a free tier if you want to check it out, and a paid subscription if you want full access and to support the work.

TL;DR

AI isn’t replacing project managers. It’s raising the bar. Anyone can generate a plan, but guiding a team through the thinking behind it takes judgment, facilitation, and real leadership. The future of project management belongs to the people who know how to use AI to think better, not avoid thinking at all.