How Gen AI Enhances Agility’s Business Value – Report by PMI

The Project Management Institute’s (PMI) report, Reclaiming Agile’s Promise: How GenAI Enhances Agility’s Business Value Through Human-Centered Collaboration, examines how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) reshapes agile delivery across team and enterprise levels. Based on a global study of 2,000 project professionals across 12 countries, the report highlights that while GenAI accelerates efficiency and innovation, it also acts as a powerful amplifier that exposes existing organizational and collaboration dysfunctions. Ultimately, the research emphasizes that GenAI should augment human judgment rather than replace it, helping organizations move beyond “agile theater” to achieve authentic business value and enterprise adaptability.

Key Insights 

• Global Study Demographics: The research surveyed 2,000 project professionals across 18 industries in 12 countries.
• Collaboration Challenges in Advanced Users: Trailblazers (individuals using GenAI on over 50% of projects) report collaboration challenges at twice the rate of basic users (38% versus 19%).
• Breakthrough Success Rate: Trailblazers are 16 times more likely to achieve major breakthroughs compared to newcomers (48% versus 3%).
• Compounding Quality Effect: Professionals using GenAI for 15 or more project management tasks consistently achieve higher output quality scores (3.36) compared to those using it for 6 or less tasks (3.24).
• Certification and Barrier Identification: Certified professionals identify GenAI barriers at higher rates than uncertified peers, including over-reliance concerns (45% vs. 32%), collaboration issues (38% vs. 18%), and confusing outputs (41% vs. 30%).
• Uncertified Awareness Gap: 22% of uncertified professionals report facing no barriers or challenges when using GenAI, compared to only 12% of certified professionals.
• Top Administrative Usage: Project planning is the most common GenAI task at 49%, followed by documentation and knowledge management at 45%, and administrative or operational support at 41%.
• Underutilized Strategic Tasks: Critical strategic enablers remain significantly underutilized, such as cross-team coordination (18%), team development and coaching (16%), and iteration and sprint management (20%).
• Agentic Ecosystem Growth: Autonomous AI agents are projected by Gartner to power 40% of enterprise applications by 2026, up from less than 5% in 2025.
• Organizational Size Sweet Spot: Midsize organizations with 500 to 9,999 employees achieve the highest GenAI output quality scores (3.35), outperforming smaller companies (3.27) and larger enterprises (2.6-3.26).

Conclusion

In conclusion, GenAI serves as a critical truth-teller for modern organizations, illuminating the gap between superficial process compliance and authentic, value-driven agility. While the temptation to automate low-friction administrative tasks remains high, true transformation requires shifting focus toward high-impact, capability-building applications that address enterprise debt and foster cross-functional collaboration. By ensuring that human judgment, trust, and relationship-building remain at the center of project execution, organizations can successfully harness GenAI to scale adaptability and secure long-term competitive advantage.

You can check out the full report here.