States and companies compete for the place of the largest investor in AI. Several billion euros later, which remains to give life to these projects? Zoom on the project manager.
The magnitude of the Action IA and Choose France summits made it possible to channel an unprecedented number of initiatives and partnerships between public and private actors, for a total of 300 billion euros. The very words of the Elysée, “never seen”. An IA campus, 1200ha of data centers, the development of ethical and inclusive AI … dozens and dozens of ambitious projects that only remains to be made on the ground. And that is all the challenge: these initiatives are likely to remain simple declarations of intention if they are not precisely deployed and coordinated by the various actors committed. More than sponsors, promoters and other investors, it is the project managers who will determine whether French companies and public authorities will succeed in creating digital champions or, on the contrary, if they will burn their wings with excessive ambitions.
The project manager, captain of AI projects
Investments in AI mobilize a multitude of stakeholders: companies, researchers, public organizations at all levels. The coordination between these actors, who have neither the same objectives nor the same criteria for success, is essential.
Take some examples: the deadlines for the most common projects are substantial when we talk about AI: a classic data center takes between 2 to 6 years to get out of the ground. A simple generative AI takes on average 1 year and a half to be developed. Once launched, 70 % of generative AI projects are upset on access to quality data, for lack of coordination between academic and industrial partners. Planning such projects requires a millimeter organization!
This is the whole role of the project manager, who is trained to identify the methodologies and tools necessary for planning and the smooth running of the project. Its expertise in material and human costs avoids drifts, such as those observed in certain under-optimized technological clusters: AI projects in poles like Sophia Antipolis or Berlin-Adlershof have undergone budgetary overruns from 30 % to 50 %, according to field returns, due to the lack of rigorous management of material and human costs!
To ensure the success of the projects announced at the summit, the support of sponsors will therefore not be sufficient. They will have no choice but to rely on qualified project managers. They will have to guarantee, as well as the “financiers”, the successes or failures of these initiatives. But that is not to say that they are alone responsible for these Herculean works.
To be successful, they must take on all stakeholders. By definition, project managers were trained in this mission. But the interference of AI comes to challenge their methods.
What about organizations?
The introduction of the generative AI makes, in a way, the human skills even more important. To be effective, AI is based on correct inputs and outputs verified by a person with the skills and experience necessary to assess the results. But how can we make sure that everyone masters the AI developed specifically for them?
According to the last AI Global Report of PMI, the capacity of the teams to appropriate generative AI depends on two essential factors: preparation and initiative. Two criteria that escape project managers, since they directly fall under strategic choices made by the directions of their businesses and organizations.
Preparation includes fundamental technological skills, knowledge of the field and a commitment to learning and development of skills. The lack of understanding of the operation of LLMS or the Genai limits the amount of use cases that a professional can identify, experiment and implement in the context of his daily work. It is therefore essential that this preparation work begins as soon as possible, even before the official adoption of the AI by the teams.
The initiative is just as important: it is the commitment and the desire to adopt AI as a transformative technology. This requires a real desire to take advantage of the capacities of generative AI and a proactive approach to learning and adaptation to new working methods. Without these elements, adoption efforts may stagnate or remain superficial.
If the project manager must be the captain of AI projects, the companies that sponsor them must therefore be the mother vessel-the structure that allows project managers to board all stakeholders in their wake.
So what to expect from the next summit for AI action? For a project manager, the answer is clear: the integration of the AI in the workplace must stop being a subject reserved for HR experts, confined to a simple round table. It must become a strategic issue for each organization which refuses to be at the origin of the “bugs” which are preparing in this race for AI.
