How AI Can Help You Become A Project Leader In 2026 | AI Project Management Tutorial | Simplilearn

Okay. Um, great. Now we are live on YouTube and LinkedIn as well and we have more viewers joining us there. Uh, once again a very very warm welcome to everyone watching us from all over the world. Um, hi um Tim, you're joining us from the US. It's great to have you here. Um, hi Pritika, you're joining us from India. Good. Thank you for being here. Okay. Um, hi Mohammad, you you're from Pakistan. I think you've um um joined our previous session as well. I thank you for being here again. Great. Okay. So, there's a there are a lot of introductions coming. I'm sorry I'm not able to address them all, but it's um it's amazing to have such a live lively bunch of audience here. Uh my name is Ananya and I will be hosting the session today. Um this webinar is brought to you by simply learn in partnership with Virginia Tech continuing and professional education. Um the topic that we're going to discuss today is AI augmented project management less operations more leadership. Um and the title is intentional because the conversation today is um you know about how the smartest PMs are using AI to do less of the operational grind and more of the leadership work that actually moves the needle. So before we dive in uh let's quickly cover the ground rules to make sure that we get the most out of our time together. Uh first please keep all your questions in the Q&A box and not in the chat box. Um the chat is for reactions and conversations, but if you want our expert to answer something, pop it in the Q&A and we'll get to as many as we can. Uh secondly, use the chat box. Um yes, but use it well. We love seeing your reactions and everything, but uh ensure that you're not sharing anything irrelevant to the topic um or the conversation here. Um third, and most importantly, if you would like an attendance certificate for today's session, please enter your full name in the poll that will appear at the end of the webinar. Please don't uh miss it. we um will be launching at the end of the webinar and we will not be able to take any manual entry for the participation certificate if you're not participating in the poll. Okay. So for those of you who are joining us for the first time, a quick word about who we are um Simply Learn um has advanced the careers of over 15 million professionals across 150 plus countries and we've built that um through a network of 50 plus global partnerships. We've been recognized year after year as a top 20 company in IT and technical training and our learner ratings speak for themselves. Um you can see the um you know the caliber of institutions we work with. Uh we have top tier institutions from the US uh UK, India um as well as global tech giants like Google, AWS, IBM and Microsoft um in our list of key partners. Uh we're really proud of the partnership ecosystem we've built and the learning experience and outcome we are able to deliver because of um these partnerships. And um here is what sets our programs apart. A 50% average salary hike reported by our learners, 4.8 out um of five rating and an 80% graduate rate. Um these numbers um you know are um from a survey result and um these reflect what happens when curriculum is designed with real outcomes in mind and a curriculum is you know delivered by real practitioners and supported end to end. We'll talk more about um a specific Virginia Tech uh program at the end of the webinar. For now um let's get into today's agenda. Um here's what we're going to cover today. And I want to flag um that this is a dense session because it's such an important topic. So please do stay uh tuned with us. Um we'll start by looking at what data is actually seeing about AI adoption and where the gaps are. Um then we'll get into AI's role in project management right now. Um our expert will be walking us through how PMs at every stage of their career can use AI to get better. Uh whether you're prepping for your PMP exam, trying to land your first PM role, or leading teams and projects already at the um enterprise level. Uh we'll also tackle the common concerns and questions that come up um you know every time we talk about BM careers and we'll close with a road map that you can actually um act on. Um right so now I'm at um a very interesting exciting uh segment of the webinar. Um I'm going to properly introduce the person who's going to be guiding us through the heart of today's session. Um Louisa Beheas uh brings 25 plus years of experience across predictive hybrid and agile environments. Uh she holds a PMP uh DASM which is disciplined agile scrum master and scrum fundamental certification. Um I think what makes Louisa particularly relevant for today's conversation um is that she works at the um you know intersection of project management practice u and AI application. um she's not just um you know teaching uh the theory, she's actively helping leaders uh use AI to improve planning um communication, reporting and team productivity as well. She also teaches um as professionals preparing for certifications exam. Um Luca, it's an absolute pleasure to have you here. Uh before we dive into the topic, I'd love for you to set the stage for us. Say you're hi to um everyone here. Thank you so much Ana for the kind introduction. I'm super excited to be here today. Um I am also an instructor for the Virginia Tech and Simply Learn program. So this is a topic that is close to my heart. So very excited to be here today. Hey great. Awesome. So um one of the things that you know often gets lost in conversations about AI is the scale of what's um you know actually happening. we hear a lot of noise um AI is going to replace everyone or AI is like overhyped um you know opposing statements that keep coming and the truth is always you know some more um more nuanced and more interesting. So what we're going to look at right now are the numbers that project managers specifically need to understand because they tell a story about both um you know the risk of standing still and the opportunity of moving early. Um so we'll walk you through what um the data is telling us. Just a couple of data points that we have um and we want to bring your attention to on this slide. Um the first is that um AI in project management market is growing at almost 20% yearonear and will run into billions of dollars in valuation by 2034. Um the second um by 2030 it is projected that 80% of PM tasks can be run by AI. That's um you know that's just like less than four years away. So here's the issue. AI is being adopted everywhere. It's growing everywhere. It's about to automate the majority of what PMs uh do today. But the question is, is it really an issue like or can we figure a way around it? Um Louisa as a um you know PM and AI practitioner and trainer you must be observing a lot of trends in the market. My question to you is what risks and opportunities do you see as project managers um see for project managers specific to AI? Absolutely Ana and I think the most important thing to understand is that AI is a tool. It is not the end result. It is not going to replace the experience, the judgment of the human, the project manager, the expertise. So we are have we have to be aware that a lot of organizations 88% per this report already have AI in some capacity. Right? So the the reality is that AI is here. Um the key is going to be which are the project managers that are that are fluent in AI that can manage the tool that can use it to their advantage to make their uh their work smarter. Right? So there is also a big risk and that is that if AI is not utilized correctly then it can lead to failure. It can lead to unmet expectations. We have a a data point here that $547 billion dollar were lost in 2025 due to AI projects that failed and they don't fail because of the technology. They fail because of the lack of leadership. So the question today is not is AI going to take my job it is who is the PM? Am I ready as a PM to lead with AI? Um the project manager management workforce is expected to continue to grow as it has been doing in the past decades. We are expecting a lot more demand for project managers and project managers are especially well positioned to lead this AI and digital transformations. Yes. Okay. Perfect. Thank you for setting the stage setting the context with that LSA. And I think yeah you're absolutely right. It's not just about is AI going to affect my job. Um it's you know it becomes it's become a lot about how are we going to work with it. So um with that context um we'll move uh from the macro picture to a practical one. uh because knowing that AI is transforming project management um is one thing but understanding exactly what it's doing and more importantly what it's not doing yet um is where the real insight lives. Um so Louisa let's break down what AI is um actually handling in project management today. Yes absolutely. I think uh AI is already doing a lot of tasks and if we could go to the next slide we can see a list of the tasks that AI is already doing. So for example taking notes in a meeting uh automating uh status reports um you know uh analyzing perhaps giving you draft information of a risk register um perhaps giving you ideas of resource allocation modeling. But as you can see what is happening on this list that we have on the left is that these are very data heavyheavy and process driven tasks. So that is what AI is really good for is for doing those very repetitive um process driven tasks that take a lot of work uh a lot of time but that they are not requiring the next level of experience and judgment and this is what the PM is still needed for. So if we look at the list on the right, you know, AI still cannot and probably will not for the foreseeable future be able to understand political nuances, political agendas of stakeholders or reading the room in a difficult meeting, making judgment when there when we're dealing with volatility with ambiguity, right? When you are leading digital transformations, you are probably dealing with a lot of resistance and project managers are going to have to lead that change management to establish that trust that is only established most of the times face to face because we are still implementing projects for humans, right? And last but not least, AI is never accountable, human in the loop. That is the most important concept here is that we as project managers are still accountable for any outcomes that are powered by AI. So AI is not replacing the project manager. It is elevating the role I would say. Yes, absolutely. Thank you for that. And um yeah so here I want to talk about uh tools a little bit because I mean AI and uh tools like you know they go very much hand in hand. So just a few years ago I think project management was was was almost synonymous with Jira right like we you know there was an expectation on on every project manager to know about um you know to work with Jira um and maybe ASA also to an extent but if you see the list of trending tools in the space of project management now um it has copilot it has notion claude author you know all of the tools that have come uh very recently and have become um such um you know a a crucial part of everyday um work. Um so what are um according to you what are some tools necessary for a project manager to work with and um you know um if they have to like you know work on their resume like what are some tools that are sort of musthaves to put in there? Absolutely. I think we're seeing a very interesting trend and it's that every day we hear about new tools. They're popping up, you know, everywhere for every possible topic. And so a lot of times project managers feel overwhelmed because you can't master all of them. And you don't need to. You need to perhaps pick one general project management tool. The one you use may it may be Jira. It may be Microsoft Project maybe Asana Monday. All of these uh project management software information systems already are including AI into their own platform. So you can start exploring the AI capabilities that already come with the manage the project management tool that you use and perhaps then you adopt another tool that is going to support you uh for general tasks and that can be claw that can be copilot that can be chat GPT those tools are really good at providing you drafts at detecting patterns at maybe forecasting doing trends meeting management is another one that I think uh as you mentioned Otter AI is a really popular one but even your uh your meeting platforms already have AI incorporated into them. So Zoom for example teams they already have those applications that you can easily integrate for for note takingaking. So I think the important aspect here is understanding that the tool does not guarantee the project success. You are still the person who guarantees the project success and the best way to do this is to start exploring the tools. Perhaps pick a couple that you get more familiar with. You have an interesting list in front of uh in front of the participants. Motion for scheduling, notion for knowledge management can be really interesting as well. Again, combining for example something like Chad GPT or Claude with the management tool that you already have, Otter AI for meetings. But the important thing is that it is still your judgment and it also is going to depend on the quality of the data that you input into these tools. So again these are tools right um you they're going to work as well as the use that you give them as the input that you give them but ultimately it is the project manager who's going to be responsible for for the success of the project. That's a great perspective, Louisa. I love that. Uh, thanks for sharing that with us. Um, so I see that um um I see some repeated questions regarding um recording, Louisa, like allow me to address that before we we move on to the next segment. Um yes uh for all those who will um who will be with us till the end and participate in the poll that we'll be launching we will be able to generate a certificate um for attending the webinar as well as um um we will be able to share the recording of this session and the deck with you. So please do stay tuned uh till the end. Okay. Um so now we're going to move um into one of the most uh I think valuable crucial parts of today's uh session. Um before we begin um I'm going to launch a quick poll. We'd like to you know know where all of you stand right now um with regards to um your project management career or your plan. Um number one are you prepping for um PMP exam or are you looking to enter the field? Um or number three, have you just started as a project manager? Um or um number four, are you somewhere in um the middle? Do you like you know if you have like 3 to seven years of work experience and you are um somewhere in the middle in the project management ladder or um the last option is if you have more than seven eight years of experience and you're already leading teams or departments um so just like you know participate in the poll and let us know uh where you stand right now. Um I'll uh while we have answers coming in I the you know why we asked this is because AI is you know AI doesn't necessarily help everyone the same way. Um its value depends on where you are in your career and what you're trying to accomplish. Um so what is going to walk us through um in this segment is a stage bystage breakdown from um you know someone who studying for their PMP exam all the way to a senior PM leading transformation initiatives. Um at each stage there are very specific ways AI can accelerate your growth, sharpen your outputs and free up your time for the work that requires um you know more judgment, strategy and leadership like Lisa already spoke about. Um so Louisa let's go stage by stage. I will hand it over to you. Maybe you can carry on continuously for the next uh fly five slides. Um I'll interrupt you only if there is like any relevant question from the audience. Otherwise you can carry on. Sounds good. And it is exciting to see the diversity of answers we have in the poll because we have people in pretty much all of the different stages. So let's talk about how AI can help you in each of the stages. And for this first stage, the PMP exam prep, I have to say, Ana, I wish there was AI when I took the PMP. I took the PMP many years ago. uh we did not have AI but I wish I had because it is having like a personal tutor that is right next to you that can answer questions can expand concepts can give you examples relevant to your own industry it can generate unlimited PMP questions it can help you turn small pockets of time into productive time so let's say that you have a few minutes in between meetings you can ask uh your AI you know tool of preference uh generate three questions or let's practice you know flashc cards or concepts or whatnot. So I think that is a really good compliment. I do have to say that you should not completely rely on AI to study for your PMP exam. It is again it is a tool. Um, this should complement uh an instructor-led course because as we know AI can still make mistakes and the PMP exam has to do a lot with applied knowledge with how do you apply knowledge to scenarios and this is something that you can get from a live class where there is an instructor where you can discuss and walk through different scenarios in applying that knowledge. So I think it is as we've been saying it's a really great tool that it can complement perhaps an instructor expert lid um course where you are going to get that human flavor and that opportunity to discuss real world applications but definitely a great companion to prepare for the exam. Let's go to stage two. So let's say that you have already passed your your PMP exam. you are already uh looking at your first job. You are perhaps at an entry-level position and uh you are wanting to to use AI as a tool to help you with perhaps some of those first tasks. For some reason, the screen is not loading for me. I'm going to give it just a few seconds to see if it loads. There you go. Now, there might be an issue with my It is. It is up there now. Oh, my bad. It is. It it's just taking a little bit to load, but um yeah, let's just let's just wait a couple seconds. Oh, actually before you even get the job, let's talk about the job search and application, right? Because this is a this is a place where a lot of project managers I do think they are taking advantage. And so it can help you with your with your resume. It can actually also help you with your PMP application. So, if you have some experience that you're trying to draft into PMI language, you can do that as well. It can help you prep for interviews. So, you can tell the AI uh tool to help you with mockup questions, for example. It can help you draft cover letters that are tailored or personalized to the specific job. It can help you do company research fairly quickly. So, if you are going to have an interview at a specific company, you can ask AI to help you summarize some bullet points. Um perhaps some important points that you can bring up in your interview. Uh LinkedIn optimization, it can help you rewrite your headline, your summary, your experience bullets, all of the things that may help you with visibility for those recruiters and for searchability for the job of your dreams. So, let's go to the next stage. uh once you are perhaps successful in that job search and you have your first entry-level project management job. So AI can help you with drafts. It can help you draft a project charter. It can help you draft any of the registers. The templates that uh AI can create can be also very helpful. It can help you mapping state stakeholders. So if you describe your project and you describe, you know, the basic business case or what you're trying to accomplish, AI can help you think through some of the stakeholders that you should keep in mind and perhaps some engagement strategies. As we've said, meeting agendas, that's something that used to take so much time, especially of entry-level staff, taking notes, polishing them, you know, tweaking them, sending them around. Now that AI can do that for you and as as uh we've said for all the different stages it can help you with learn with learning. So any topics any concepts that you are unfamiliar in your new job you can ask AI to explain methodologies to explain concepts to break them down into a plain language to give you examples that are relatable to the job that you have. So it is going to help you move to that next level of project management. So let's look at stage four. Perhaps a more midlevel project manager. So you are going to be able to use AI for risk intelligence. AI tools can help you identify patterns. They can help you um triggering a alerts for risks that are about to materialize. They can help you with reporting, right? Because they can take a lot of data of information. Um you can automate status updates. So instead of you having to be creating those status updates, you can focus on intelligence, on decision making, on creating dashboards that are going to make sense for each of your audiences. You can use it for stakeholder communication, especially when you have difficult stakeholders or difficult situations that require very nuance tone. AI can help you, you know, make sure that your emails are reading correctly, that you are conveying the the specific tone that you want to convey. It can help you make decisions by providing you options by you know perhaps doing very structured recommendations uh that you can bring into your meetings when you're having to make key decisions. So it is going to provide you with analysis with patterns with trends that are going to help you then move into that next level of project management. So if we look at our stage five this is more enterprise level. This is strategy. This has to do with leading, right? This has to do with people that are going to be extremely busy that are going to be uh demanded into a lot of different uh aspects of the of the business. So AI is going to help you monitor the health of all of your projects under your portfolio. They are going to help you leverage an AI trend analysis to anticipate organizational risk. So again it is taking a lot of the things that we've already seen for the project level to the enterprise level to the portfolio level. So it is going to help you also perhaps drive that organizational change that we were talking about understanding your team analyzing your velocity your collaboration patterns understanding where perhaps you need to reinforce your resources and it is going to help you with your executive presence because you are going to have data. You're going to have analysis. You are going to anticipate objections at at meetings and you are going to be fully prepared for any decision making on any meeting that you are going to be required to be leading. So let's talk about the importance of working with AI because there right now I think we have three options of what are project managers doing respective to AI. There's perhaps the project manager who is ignoring all of this and saying this is too overwhelming. This is scary. I don't want to deal with this. I've been doing my project management work for years and why do I need to change it? So this is going to be a project manager that is going to be spending a lot of time on tasks that the the the p the project manager next door is doing in a fraction of the time because they are using AI. So they're going to get slower. They're going to be outpaced by all those peers that are AI fluent and they're going to lose relevance at the leadership table because nowadays u the conversations are around AI and how AI is improving um the industry. So you may not want to be in that category. Then the PM who fears AI, right? So perhaps you kind of used AI but you're still a little bit overwhelmed. You don't know where to start. Uh it sounds overwhelming. There's too many options, too many tools. I don't even know where I can use AI for my job. So this is going to be somebody who is underutilizing a really good tool that is available. they're going to miss some of the efficiency, some of the speed that people that are using AI consistently are going to get and they're going to be left behind because there's going to be others that are adopting AI quicker and that are going to have a sit at the table because this is where the conversation is going. So, you want to be in the third category. You want to be the project manager who leads with AI. This is somebody who is trying the tools, who is developing the skills, who is bringing data back, recommendations to every decision, who can spend more time on the quality work, on strategy alignment, on enterprise thinking, on risk anticipation because the the the more timeintensive tasks are being automated or are being done by AI. So this is a person who is going to advance faster that is going to be uh have added value that is going to be able to generate more value for the company because they are utilizing AI correctly. Amazing. Thank you so much for um taking us through all the stages. I think that was very very comprehensive and um given that we have people we have audiences from um you know so many different stages um in their careers I think this would have been would have been like solid takeaways for um everyone so thank you so much for that I think it's a very interesting segment um so I want to um you know take a moment for something I know might be on a lot of minds in this session um some questions and some concerns because every time that we run webinars asks like this um the same you know themes come up um will AI replace me um do I need to become um you know more and more technical um do I need to um what if my organization is not even using AI yet so how do I um you know initiate these things um how do I you know another major concern is how do I even know if AI what AI is producing is correct like you know um um as we all know AI hadinates a lot so these are very um you know real valid raw questions um that we've been um getting from a lot of learners, a lot of practitioners. Um so uh we have compiled all of them here and Luca is going to um address them um one by one. So uh it'll be great Luca if you can like you know offer your um insights maybe even like you know just short insights um on these frequent frequently asked questions. Sure. Uh thank you Ana. Yes and I hear these questions as well all the time. So is AI going to replace project managers? No, project management is still uh you know humans doing projects for humans and so we are still going to need that expertise that judgment that the project manager brings to the table that cannot be replaced by AI. Now if you are a project manager whose only value is that operational coordination then probably yes you may be replaced maybe not entirely by AI but maybe by another project manager that does know how to utilize AI. So do you need to become more technical or an AI or information technology expert? Absolutely not. What you need to be is AI fluent. You need to understand the basic concepts. You need to understand what tools, how to use them. You need to be able to evaluate the outputs critically. As you were saying, Ana, uh even though each model that is released is more and more perfected, AI still hallucinates, AI still can make mistakes. I mean, the the the responses that we may get from AI may include outdated data sources. A lot of times they are completely made up. So you need to be on top of the outputs from AI to make sure that you validate them, that you verify them, that you tailor them, that you adapt them to your own context, right? So you are going to apply your project management judgment because AI doesn't have judgment. So you are going to treat that output, you know, with a grain of salt. You're going to have to compare, validate, use your expertise, use your instincts, compare with um perhaps expert judgment that you may have within your organization. What happens if your organization isn't even using AI? Does this still matter to you? Absolutely. Yes. Someone in your organization is going to be leading that that AI transformation. So you want to position yourself as a person that is knowledgeable, that is speaks AI, that has tried these tools, that understand where those tools can make an impact in value creation in your organization. A lot of times I hear about people, well, I'm too old for this. Like this this is something that it's already too late for me. Um I already have a lot of years of experience. I'm used to doing things one way. This is not relevant for me. And I don't think that that is correct. Yes. more junior people. They are very tech-savvy. They have grown perhaps with um with some of these tools uh for their for their career. And so they may have a little bit of a quicker adaptability to the tools. But if you have more years of experience, you have something that they don't have and that AI don't have, which is again, it's that judgment, that experience that is going to be extremely valuable because you're going to be able to combine the outputs that AI is giving you with the context and the judgment, the experience, the expertise that you bring to the table. So, it is not too late. And I have to say, Ana, I have to give a personal example here. My dad is almost 80 years old and he is one of the leading AI experts in back in Colombia. He was just in a meeting in uh in Seattle in Microsoft because he was invited as one of the leaders of AI for Latin America. So it is never too late. You can always learn new technology, adapt and if this is something that it it is already here. It's a reality that is not going away and so it is never too late for learning um this technology. That is so so so cool. Thank you for sharing that with us. That's uh really quite amazing. Okay. So I um you know hope with this segment a lot of uh questions and concerns um that we keep getting from people across different domains as well. Um I hope that that that is um addressed. Um before we move uh to the next segment, I just want to quickly um tell everyone about a very very interesting workshop that is uh coming. Um it is going to happen on the 9th of May uh which is um a Saturday. So um we are starting it at um 7 PM um IST which is again 10:30 a.m. um ET. Um so this um is going to be a very hands-on uh 3-hour workshop. uh you will participate in building a structured PMP aligned project plan um in real time with um um you know PMP trainer uh one of um our simply learn mentors as well uh Timothy Jerome. Uh so in this session we're going to be covering everything like end to end in building a project plan from scope to scheduling to how to handle risks, how to communicate with stakeholders and um you know um you will be walking away with evidence of your work that you can use both for um you know PMP exam as well as for um your career. Um it's going to be a great session. So please do stay tuned. Um I am going to share uh the link to register um in the chat. So we hope to see you all here. Great. Okay. So back to um discussing this. Great. Okay. So we've now covered um you know so far um the data, the tools, the stage bystage applications. Um we've addressed the questions that concern project managers the most. Um now I want to sort of like you know bring it all together with something concrete. um because um the best in insights are only useful if they lead to action. um so we're going to walk um walk you through a practical um you know five-step road map uh for becoming an AR powered PM. Um this is like you know not just like some aspirational thing. It's it's a sequence that you can start um on as soon as today's session ends. Um you know so Lisa um you know if someone were to start right now right away like you know what would your advice be like what can project managers start doing to master AI? Can you um take them through? Absolutely. Yes absolutely Ana I think uh as we said earlier sometimes project managers feel overwhelmed there's so many tools like there's all these possibilities where do I start? So I think you need to start small and and you need to start with something that is relevant to you that you are already doing. So look at your day-to-day. What are those tasks that you are continuously repeating every day that are time consuming that are low value creation? They don't require a lot of your experience or judgment. So you think you're thinking I am underutilized by spending my time on this task, right? And so think about how can AI help you with those tools, right? And pick a couple of tools to try, right? Pick perhaps chachi ppt or copiloid or notion and try to use those for two or the three tasks that you have identified. use them for a couple of weeks and then decide yes this tool gave me the right output or or maybe I want to try a different thing right and then upskill join a project management program that is going to help you with uh incorporating AI into your daytoday work right this is the best way to grow your career it is going to be different to hear from somebody that says yes I use AI from time to time than somebody that says I am certified in a program that incorporates AI into project management. Right? So, this is going to help you build confidence that is going to help you develop those very specific project management skills powered by AI. And then position yourself, right? Update your LinkedIn. Go ahead and brag. If you become a PMP, add those three letters after your name. That is going to help you stand out. And if you complete a program uh that includes AI, make sure that you mention that because uh for us for example that got certified in PMP many years ago, we have to continue learning. We have to continue upskilling. We have to take those courses, those classes and experiment with those tools so that we can stay current. So this is a great opportunity for those of you that are perhaps considering such an upskill. Great. Uh, perfect. I think you know you you um strongly spoke about upskilling um already. Um and um we can del into that a little bit more. Um so you're a holder of multiple certifications. You also train and mentor hundreds of learners with us. So I'm guessing like you know upskilling that in um in the format of um you know structured learning is very important uh for project managers in your perspective. Um so for you know the benefit of our audiences can you elaborate on why like upskilling matters so much especially in this context and how can it contribute to a project manager's career growth today? Absolutely. I think uh you know right now the job market is really competitive. It is tough. So you need to find a way to stand out and certifications are a great vehicle to do that. We see constantly on LinkedIn that people are acquiring certifications that they are posting about the courses that they have completed and it is because it matters. It it shows that you are updating yourself that you are not just you know becoming complacent with the one title that you got or your university formation or academic formation that you are really uh continuing to be on top of the latest trends. So when you join a program you are having a structure curriculum that is that you are going to learn in a structured way. You are going to have the opportunity to do hands-on practice and then at the end you're going to have something to show for. You are going to have a certificate. You are going to have perhaps a credential that you are going to be able to show on your LinkedIn profile that in your uh your curriculum it is going to help you stand out. So the other thing is that it creates some interesting networks. I've already worked with, you know, several cohorts with simply learn and I can see that the different participants and students, they connect on LinkedIn, they form these relationships, they create a community. So, this is something that is also going to help you accelerate your development in some ways that self-study cannot replicate. So, I really encourage people to uh make part of those those cohorts of those programs that are going to provide those opportunities for you. Great. Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that. Just give me a second and we'll move on to the next segment. Okay. So, I think you've um you know, beautifully set the context for um you know, the next segment. Um this um anyway, this whole conversation has been exactly the kind of you know, topic that um all of us needed to have. Um uh so let me you know take that um um information further um and discuss um you know how um all of these uh perspectives and insights um can be funneled into a structured credentialed path forward. Um so we're going to walk everyone through the professional certificate program in project management um that is offered um by simply learn in partnership with Virginia Tech. Um this is the program that brings together um you know PM foundations, agile and hybrid delivery, AI and digital tools, uh risk and governance and um you know a lot of uh um important PM concepts into a single cohesive experience. Um so um yes, let me um give you a very quick over overview um after which we can have um Louisa sharing more about the curriculum. Um so you know here are seven highlights of the program that we want to draw your attention to. Um number one you earn a prestigious completion certificate and digital uh badge from Virginia Tech. Um secondly you get access to PMI's own uh digital learning materials. This includes audio video content, ebooks, assessments um and participant uh guides. Um so this program is also delivered. Um um the the uh authorized training partner for this program is project management institute which also adds a lot of cred credibility to what uh we have to offer. Um thirdly you will be uh learning from um seasoned industry um experts and practitioners. Um then you will earn 80 PTUs to support your PMP certification. Um with 35 contact hours and four simulation exams. Um you work through capstone projects across three domains. Um case studies um more you know hands-on projects and simulation exams as well. So even if you're prepping for PMP or you're already a practicing um you know project manager, this is going to be a great um you know value ad for you. Um other thing is you get exclusive modules on the latest AI trends like generative AI um engineering prompt engineering explainable AI. So um you also get to attend an academic master class by Virginia Tech instructors and receive their continuing education alumni membership on uh LinkedIn. So these are quickly the highlights that I wanted to take you um take everyone through. Um Louisa I would request you to come in here. Um in this slide we have the list of uh skills and projects that this program promises to deliver to learners. Um so if you can take us through um all this and like you know um maybe not all the projects in detail but just like you know if you can touch upon uh one or two like of the most interesting projects and maybe even just talk about how um you know um overall the project uh uh experience works and how important it is for um PMS to have these sort of projects to practice on uh will be that will be great. Sure. Absolutely. I do think that the program that Virginia Tech and Simply Learn offer is topofthe- line because it combines the most recent trends. So, it has already incorporated AI across the program and then it is a very comprehensive program that is going to give you all the skills that you're going to need to be a successful pro project manager. I see people in this program that have bring to the table 10 15 years of experience and they are still amazed at what they can learn. Um, and then I also have sometimes people that are coming from different industry. I've had, you know, um, elementary school teachers. I've had people that are coming from completely different industries that they want to transition into project management or perhaps they realize when they do the class that they have actually been doing project management that they just didn't they didn't know that that was what project management was and they felt that call to go in a different direction. And this program is what's going to help you transition into those positions or to those different industries. So we are going to be able to uh see all these different skills, learn about agile, learn about hybrid delivery which is nowadays the most popular way, the most popular approach for projects which mixes the you know the best of both worlds of that predictive more traditional waterfall approach but also the the more uh the best buzzword that everybody's talking about which is agile, right? And so how as project managers we have the judgment to combine and determine what do I what can I pick from each of these approaches into my project. We're going to learn to manage projects from determining the scope determining creating a a schedule so that we can understand how long our project is going to take how much is it going to cost how do I manage the different stakeholders how do I manage risk how do I anticipate and respond to risk. So all of these things we're going to be learning and a lot of times we're going to be doing activities or using tools that are going to be AI powered. You see here a lot of the projects that we talk about during the course. Uh some of my favorite uh especially because of the recent Arteimis 2 mission are the ones that have to do with NASA. So, we learned a little bit how NASA has evolved from a very very waterfall predictive approach that they use for the Apollo program and how even though they still use that approach for certain aspects of their projects, they have incorporated agile into some of the aspects of the the products that they develop. Um, another one that is one of my favorites is the Sydney Opera House. I think we all recognize that landmark. When we see the Sydney Opera House, we think Australia, we think beautiful architecture. But there is a really interesting story about when there were no project management standards, how this project was a failure in terms of project management because there was no plan. There was at the time this was you know before uh PMP, before agile, before any of these wonderful methodologies that we have right now. So it is really interesting to learn behind the scenes what happened and what was the real cost of bringing this beautiful architecture landmark um into into the country. So you see the list there's a lot of really interesting projects diverse industries we talk about uh you know different companies perhaps Spotify is some is another one that it it it gets the attention of people because everybody uses Spotify for their music. So uh a big variety of industries and projects that we can cover throughout um our our materials. Amazing. That's very very interesting. Louisa, thank you so much for taking us through that. Um and next then it'll be great if you can also like you know um brief us on the curriculum like exactly what are the modules like what is the learning pathway going to be. Um that will uh also be great and maybe also you can add in um your um sorry to interrupt like maybe your perspectives on how um you know aligned it is with PMP um you know certification training. I think like that's one of the um um modules as well if I'm not wrong. So if you can also um share your perspectives on that it'll be great. Sure. Absolutely. And we actually start with what we call the PMP boot camp or the PMP course. And this is great because there are a lot of options in the market uh to prepare for your PMP exam. But this the the program that Virginia Tech and Simply Learn offer it is with the PMI authorized material. Meaning SimplyLearn is an authorized training partner of PAI uh PMI. So you are you are getting the materials directly from the source of the exam. This gives a lot of credibility. It makes sure that what you're learning is absolutely aligned with what we call the ECO, the exam content outline. So we are specifically preparing you to be successful at obtaining your PMP certification. That is the foundation of the program and that is where we start. We spend a lot of time on this. We need to cover at least those 35 hours of contact training so that you can then be prepared to sit for the PMP exam and and get that certification. But the program doesn't stop there. You are also going to get another module that explores a little bit deeper some of those agile and hybrid delivery models. So we learn a lot about scrum, we learn about lean, we learn about scaling agile into enterprisewide efforts. Um then you're going to have a specific module that is AI and digital tools in project management. So there you're going to experience certain tools and how they can be applied to those different stages of project management. You are also going to have master classes that are taught by Virginia Tech instructors about risk, about quality, about governance. We have another module that is about implementing and scaling a project management office. So you will leave this program prepared to go back to your organization and perhaps propose starting a PMO, a project management office, understanding how do you do that? Where do you start? What are the challenges that you're going to face? What types of PMOs do do exist and what would be appropriate for my organization? And we also have a lot of hands-on. So you do have a capstone project that we help you, we guide you through so that in the end you have this very comprehensive PMP PMI aligned learning path that is going to give you a very well-rounded preparation to be a successful project manager. Amazing. Very very interesting. Thank you Louisa. Um okay so um we also want to like you know touch upon uh why um choosing us can significantly like you know boost your career development. This is specific to simply learn because beyond the curriculum uh first we also provide a tailored guidance and mock assessment specifically designed to enhance your interview performance. Um this is so that like you know you're prepared to tackle any interview scenario. Um next we offer AI powered optimization of your resume and LinkedIn profile. Um the idea here is to increase your visibility to recruiters. Um offering you a competitive edge in the job market. Um and additionally we offer a curated selection of job opportunities that align with your skills and career aspirations. Um these handpicked opportunities mean that you're you know um you can strategically move towards your career goals. Um and finally we also focus on improving your technical competencies um through assessments um that is designed to sort of sharpen your skill and elevate your overall proficiency. Um so this um you know what we're trying to say here is that this is an end to-end commitment um not just to your learning but also to the outcome. So um that's what um we wanted to cover here and um give you some reasons on why you should choose us. Uh so yeah uh moving on um so for interested learners here are the program investment details um it is 97,9.99 rupees for learners from India and $2,800 from learner from the USA. Um there are also monthly installment options available from um you know just 4,388 rupees a month um and $280 a month respectively for India and USA. Um you can discuss all this in detail with the advisor who will be reaching out to you from our end. Um and remember like Luca said that this program also helps you train for the PMP exam. Um and gives you PDUs and tests and simulations, mock assessments and all of that. So um you will um all that you will get in a PMP certification training program. Um yes this um is a more of a time and financial commitment than a PMP certification training program but it has a lot more of value and um you know um takeaways as well. Um so with that um I'm going to launch a poll to take your interest in enrolling in the program. I've also shared a link um in the chat box right now. Um so um you can click on all you have to do is click on yes or no. Um and um if you want to like you know know more um details, know more about the program um say um you know talk to an advisor, talk to an expert and figure things out then take it a little slow that's absolutely fine. You can still click on yes so that like you know our advisors will get in touch with you on priority and guide you on the way forward. um and um the QR code here and the link that I've shared on the chat. You can use that to sort of like you know browse through the program and understand all its offerings in at your base. Um you can also download the curriculum there and at whatever point you choose to take this forward you can um you know um schedule a call um with our expert um through that link. Um okay so while uh we have that uh um you know poll live um Louisa it' be great if we can take some questions um and address some um you know doubts that have come our way um so I'm going to read out the question now um okay so this is this is from someone whose uh office is already um investing heavily in AI tools um but they're not really able to see results results. Um, so where do we um where do we begin to course correct is what someone wants to know. I think this might not just be about seeing results but also um you know not being able to understand what is exactly the measure of you know AI output right like how do we measure what is good and what is um not that good. So maybe if you can share your insights on that that would be great. Sure. Yes. And I think this is so common nowadays for for a lot of companies because they feel the pressure to do something with AI. It's the buzz word. Their board of directors or their shareholders are pressuring what are you guys doing in AI? And so a lot of companies undertake these initiatives without having a clear purpose or a clear plan. And this is where as project managers we can contribute a lot because we have that type of structure thinking where we always think in terms of value. So before starting any AI initiative in an organization, you have to have a very clear objective. What is the need? What is the pain point that we are trying to solve here? If that is not clear, if you are just in implementing AI tools because that's what you think you have to do, but you don't understand what are the pain points, what are your project managers spending more time on that that that can be relieved by an AI tool. And as you mentioned, I think metrics is something that is also very important. How do you know if your initiative was successful? Are you measuring perhaps how much time your team is spending on specific tasks that are then going to be replaced by AI? And if they are replaced by AI or assisted, augmented by AI, then what is happening with that additional time? Are you just piling on more process oriented tasks or are you allowing your team to spend that extra time in more analysis in perhaps uh understanding risk in making better understanding of volatility or uncertainty in their project? Are they networking with stakeholders? Are they engaging different uh members of the team to discuss progress uh program success? So it is really important for me. Those are the two key items that you need to have in order for an AI initiative to be successful. A very clear goal, a very clear objective of what is it that you're trying to solve here? What is the purpose of utilizing that AI tool? And second, how are you going to measure success? And again, project managers, we are trained for that. That is what we do when we manage projects. So having that understanding of a very structured project management experience plus the knowledge of being AI fluent is going to position you to be helpful into deriving value to your company to your organization powered by those AI tools that your company's already bringing to the table. Perfect. Thank you so much uh Louisa. I hope that answers your uh question. Um okay the second question that we have um I'm going to read it out. Um so this is from someone who is already PMP certified. Um they're saying that uh they've already invested a lot of time and effort um and um money into you know earning the certification cracking the exam. So um will this program be still be a good value ad uh for them? like what uh you know what could um this program particularly contribute to someone who's already certified who's already experienced absolutely I have several thoughts here as we as you may know once you get certified you have a requirement to maintain your certification and that means that you need a certain number of PDUs project development units that you need to report back to PMI every 3 years in order for your credential to continue to be active And you don't want to let your credential expire because if it expires, if you don't submit your PDUs uh on time for that three-year cycle, your credential expires and you would need to sit for the PMP exam again, pay for it again and sit for it again. So, this program can provide you uh with those PDUs that you need to report and that is going to help you maintain your PMP uh active. Another thing that to think about is when did you get your PMP certification? Because for example, I took it based on the penbook 6. We just launched PMI just launched the pen book 8. And so there's been an evolution of the PMI of the project management industry that PMI has been reflecting into updating not only the PMbook, which is the book that is kind of like our our guidance for the best practices in project management, but also into the exam. So if you attend the the current PMP, you are probably going to be learning about some of the latest trends. When I prepared for the PMP, we barely learned anything about agile and barely learned any learned anything about hybrid because at the time that was not as pro prominent. But today's PMP focuses heavily on agile and hybrid approaches. So that is something that is fairly new that you can learn. As we discussed, this program is not just for the PMP uh exam. It is a very dig deeper into agile and hybrid methodologies into the use of AI as a tool for powering project managers. You're also going to learn a lot more than you learn from your PMP preparation about PMOs, about project management offices, and you are going to have the opportunity to do capstone projects. So, applying some of those tools that you're learning during class for your own exercises and for your own projects. In our agile and hybrid classes, we do demos on different tools like Trello. We do we do um projects in Jira. We also do Smart Sheets. So you get exposed to a lot of different tools that perhaps you've never had a chance to use. So this is not just about preparing you for the PMP. This is a more well-rounded and comprehensive hands-on project that is going to expose you to the most recent trends to tools to AI tools to uh demonstrations of using some of those tools for for project management. So I do think it is going to add a lot of value. Wow. Amazing. Thank you so much Louisa for that uh answer. I think that very clearly painted the picture of what more the program can contribute um to someone who's already practicing um as a project manager or who's BMP certified. Great. Um we've also got a lot of interest um um in enrolling in the program. So I'm going to end the poll right now and launch another poll um for the certificate. Just give me a moment. Okay. So, um all of you must be seeing another poll um on your screens right now. So, this is for um the attendance certificate. Um please enter your full name like you know how you want it um on want it to appear on the certificate and submit the poll. Um we don't need your any other additional detail like your email or anything like that. Just your name would be sufficient. we will be able to generate the certificate and share it with you in the next 24 or 48 working hours maximum um over email. In case if you're not able to access the poll um or um you know you don't receive the certificate um please do write to us at [email protected] and we will be able to look into the issue and get back to you. Right. So um with that we have come to the end of the session. Um thank you very much everyone for spending the last one hour with us. Um we hope that um you know you would be able to um take away um and apply a lot of learnings from this session um as well as what you would get um in our u project management program um um in your career to move forward. Um Lisa, it's been an absolute pleasure hosting you. uh do you have any final um you know remarks to share any advice for our learners before we close the session? Thank you Anana. It's a it's been a pleasure for me too and I hope to see a lot of you in perhaps an upcoming cohort of our Virginia Tech and SimplyLearn project management program. Great. Okay. Amazing. With that we are going to end the session. Um in case there were um quite a lot of questions um um that um you know that came our way. So um in case we are not able to um address anything in specific do uh write to us at uh um webinars simply.net um if you have any feedback to share also please do drop in there. Uh we'd love to hear from you. Uh once again thank you Louisa and thank you everyone. I am ending the session now. Thank you. Bye-bye.