November 12 2026 at 05:58AM
Summit reflections by Wafa Atoini, Project Manager at Adryan
Are we getting better at delivering projects, or better at creating value?
At the PMI Summit Netherlands 2026, the discussions on technology, leadership and project success pointed to the same answer: People.
AI is changing the PM role. Status reports, meeting notes and action follow-up can increasingly be handled by tools, which frees us up for what really matters: building trust, navigating complexity and exercising judgment. Those are the moments where projects are won or lost, and no tool can do them for us.
Technology alone isn’t enough, though. Even the best tool delivers little if nobody uses it. Internal ambassadors help here: colleagues who use a new tool daily, share what works and are open about what doesn’t, can do more for adoption than any rollout plan. People embrace change when they see it working for someone like them. Adoption is a people challenge before it is a technology challenge.
The summit theme, Projects with Purpose, captures the same logic. Delivering on time and within budget matters, but the real measure is the value created for organizations and their stakeholders, today and tomorrow. A project can be delivered perfectly and still miss its purpose if nobody asked what it was for.
This also made me reflect on our role as project managers. With so much attention on planning, reporting, and delivery, how often do we stop to question whether we are focusing on the right things? Sometimes the most valuable contribution is not another report or meeting, but a conversation that helps people see things differently.
My takeaway: as tools become more sophisticated, our ability to connect, influence, and lead people matters more, not less.
Technology can help us move faster. People help us move in the right direction.
How are you using AI to create more space for the human side of your projects?
