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Hi everyone, here is Ricardo Vargas, and this is the 5 Minutes Podcast. Last week I published a new edition of my Beyond Hype newsletter with a very provocative title about the future of project management in the age of AI. And before I start, let me explain: the newsletter and this podcast are two things that are really close to my heart because they are, I would say, the way I can express myself. For example, why do I not have a weekly newsletter? It's because I'm human. I need to have time to write and to think and to reflect. This is why my newsletter is only once a month. And every month I try to share what is, I would say, making me happy, making myself sad or concerned. And it's a reflection of what I'm thinking. And the response to this past newsletter was incredible. I received a huge number of comments, emails, private messages, and most of them, 99% of them, were super positive. But of course, I also received some sceptical reactions. And this, honestly speaking, is a great thing too. I have no issue with people disagreeing with my view. For me, this is really a good thing. The goal of the newsletter was never and is never to convince people that I have the answers because I don't have them. And it's quite the opposite. Today, I want to share a few thoughts about the discussions it generated. And first, I want to make something very clear. I am simply someone trying to understand what is happening. I wish I had a crystal ball to know exactly will look like, okay? But I'm like any of you listening to this episode; I have many doubts, okay? Nobody knows exactly what is happening. And everything I write and every single podcast I record reflects my own observation after spending my entire career working with project management. I have never tried to position myself as someone who knows the future; you know who I am to do that. In reality, I have the same questions that many, if not most, of you have. I have concerns too. I wake up in the morning afraid of what is happening. Remember, projects have been my entire professional life. This is what I know how to do, and I make my living out of that. So when I see this extraordinary pace of AI development, of course I need to ask myself, What will our work look like in five years? Will we still have jobs? What will our jobs look like in the future? Maybe if it's not in five, it's in ten, or maybe it's even in two. And does that concern me? Absolutely. It would be completely strange if it didn't. Some people said I am being too alarmist. Maybe I'm sorry for that. But there is a big difference between creating fear and asking difficult questions. What worries me is not disagreement. What worries me is the assumption that nothing will change simply because we cannot yet imagine how change will happen. History rarely works that way. Major transformations almost never look obvious before they happen. Another question I received was, Ricardo, what if you were wrong? Oh, that's an absolutely fair question. But let me ask another one. What is the downside of learning and getting ready for what is happening? Suppose AI turns out to be less transformative than many people expect. You still learn something valuable; you develop new skills. These skills are widely available for free; go on YouTube, go on any AI tool, you will find thousands of pieces of content for you to learn. So what happens if you develop these skills? You will become more capable. There is no real loss. But now, consider the opposite. Suppose AI continues evolving at the speed we are seeing today. That, for me, honestly speaking, will not happen because I think the speed will increase. This is my personal view. Suppose it fundamentally changes how organizations operate. Then the people who choose not to learn, not to prepare, will face a much bigger challenge. That is the risk that concerns me. Because whether you like it or not, I am watching these changes happening in front of me. And not because I read reports, not because I see LinkedIn posts, because I'm seeing these inside organizations. I see companies rushing to redesign their structures. I see PMOs being rethought. I see technology projects being organized differently. I see companies that used to be extremely wealthy and profitable in the software as a service area bleeding today to get clients. I see organizations questioning practices that seemed untouchable only a few years ago. Ideas around agile, ideas around sprints, governance, project roles, and even the way teams are organized are being reconsidered. Does this mean project management will disappear? Of course not, but it certainly means that our work is evolving and changing. And ignoring that possibility seems much riskier than trying to understand it. At the end of the day, my goal was never to predict the future. My goal has always been to encourage people to reflect. If you read the newsletter or listen to this episode and disagree with my conclusions, that's perfectly fine. I am mature enough to understand that people think differently. And I'm not doing this for my own benefit, okay, my own benefit. Many people think, oh, Ricardo, because you are working with AI, you want to. No, no. 99.9% of everything you need to learn about AI is absolutely free. Free. Just go there and grab what you learn. And it's accessible, it's easy, and it's very down to earth. The second thing. I am 54 years old. I'm much closer to a potential retirement than to the beginning of my career. And project management was amazing for me. I was able to raise my kids and have a very decent life. So I'm not advocating for myself. My concern is for my daughters. My concern is for those who are 27, 28, 30 years old, with a long journey to go with this evolving environment. And this is what I want to put in place for this conversation. Because this conversation is not really about artificial intelligence. It's about our ability to remain relevant in the world that is changing faster than most of us ever imagined. This is the type of reflection I want us to think about and to make our own judgment because, in the end, we need to live with the decisions we make in life. I'm living with the decisions I made in life, and you need to live with the decisions you make. If you think that it's much better just to say, let's wait for this wave to go out, that's fine; you just need to be prepared to live with that. So think about this. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and see you next week with another 5 Minutes Podcast. See you.
