Rethinking Risk Management – Why? Seeking Smart Solutions

AI and machine learning can be particularly helpful to assess risks for supply chain interruption and during infrastructure or environmental projects, Masood says. But he cautions project leaders to not blindly follow bots—they need to balance those insights against human input and analysis.

“Projects are for people and managed by the people,” Masood says.

While it’s good that AI and other tech tools are being used to maximize productivity and improve projects, many people who are change-averse get biased and try to find ways to make the technology fail, resulting in cost overruns and delays Masood says. Beyond that, AI can’t account for valuable feedback from major stakeholders who have the power to apply pressure that can either delay or stop a project. Software can help teams select a route for a pipeline or railway based on available data, but AI-driven decisions can be rejected or changed based on feedback from community members as well as government and regulatory bodies.

“Therefore, balance is important between people and AI while decision making,” Masood says.