Organizations that fail with AI usually start with the most exciting idea. Organizations that succeed start with the most measurable one. In a PMO, four candidates come up again and again.
Status drafting
An assistant reads the project tool and the week’s notes and drafts a one-page status in the house format. A person reviews and sends. Measure hours saved and the number of corrections per draft, which should fall week by week.
Meeting actions and decisions
An assistant produces decisions, actions and open questions from meetings. Measure actions completed on time and decisions re-opened, both before and after.
Risk register hygiene
An assistant flags stale risks, missing owners and duplicate entries, and suggests wording for vague ones. Measure the share of risks with an owner, a date and a response.
Document question-answering
An assistant answers “what did we agree about X?” from the project’s own documents, with citations. Measure time to answer and whether the citations are correct.
How to choose
- Pick the one where the current process is sound but slow.
- Pick the one whose owner wants it.
- Measure the baseline for two weeks before you start.
- Run for six weeks. Publish the before and after, including what went wrong.
One unarguable win buys the organization permission to try the ambitious ideas. Start boring.
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