Key takeaways:
- Project managers often experience high stress levels, but AI tools can help reduce their workload.
- AI-powered project management tools can assign tasks, predict deadlines, and identify potential risks.
- The best AI tools for project management include Asana, Wrike, and Trello.
- Choosing the right AI tool depends on project needs, ease of use, security, and cost-effectiveness.
- While AI is valuable, project managers should always review AI-generated outputs for quality control.
- Using the right AI tool ensures better project outcomes, reduced stress, and improved efficiency.
I love finding easier and high-quality ways to get things done.
If you’ve ever been around a project manager, often called PMs, you’ve probably noticed they barely have time for themselves. And if you’re one yourself, you know firsthand how stressful it can be.
Looking back about 9 or 10 years ago, before AI became a big deal, project management was completely different from what it is today. Back then, project managers handled almost everything manually—it was overwhelming.
Even now, many project managers still work that way. But AI tools can change that, helping you stay productive and deliver your work efficiently.
In this article, I’ll share AI tools you can choose from, covering their key features, what it’s like to use them, and how much they cost.
AI in project management
AI in project management combines artificial intelligence with project management tools to improve workflows and simplify tasks.
AI replicates human cognitive processes and can schedule, analyze massive datasets, generate briefs and documents, learn your preferences, and categorize data efficiently.
AI-powered project management systems enhance project planning, execution, and monitoring. They can assign tasks, predict project durations, and identify potential risks using past data.
These tools also improve team collaboration and workflow efficiency, keeping everyone on track and ensuring projects are completed successfully.
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Why project managers use AI tools
Automation: Imagine giving the system an instruction and having it handle repetitive tasks for you automatically. AI can automate tasks, freeing up time for more strategic work.
Risk mitigation: AI tools can identify potential project risks, such as delays, bottlenecks, and budget issues.
Project forecasting: AI can process large amounts of data to generate predictions for project deadlines, resource allocation, and budgeting. AI provides real-time analytics that would otherwise take a project manager a lot of time to compile manually.
Scheduling and Planning: AI improves scheduling and planning, so you don’t have to struggle with them manually or risk forgetting key tasks.
Better project outcomes: Using AI-powered tools helps improve efficiency in a way that leads to successful project completion.
Team and client communication: It helps pass information faster, and you can add notes to communicate better. Team members understand their roles, and clients get realistic timelines and objectives, ensuring alignment from start to finish.
Best AI tools for project management
Asana
| Best AI tool for project management | Key features | Pricing |
| Asana | Project management Goals and reporting Workflows and automation Resource management Asana AI | The paid plan starts at $13.49/month for the Starter plan. |
Overview
Asana AI helps you organize projects and keeps your team updated on progress. It offers AI-generated summaries, and the chat feature can suggest next steps, highlight risks, provide in-product assistance, and even create tasks for you.
The AI tool provides insights to help you spot potential risks, roadblocks, and unanswered questions within projects. You can use it to structure and organize projects and customize your project setup.
It can generate project descriptions, organize project sections, and suggest relevant custom fields to categorize your work. Asana includes a reporting tool, portfolio management, and goal boards for you and your team.
Using Asana
When you sign up, Asana asks about your role, function, and intended use to customize your experience. You can also specify any ongoing projects and choose a layout for your project display—I personally chose the board view.
To show you how Asana works, I created a new project. You can create a blank project, use a template, or import a project from your files or another tool.
If you’re new to the role and unsure how to start a project from scratch, you can select a template and choose from the recommended options.
The project board includes a timeline to track completed, pending, and overdue tasks, as well as the total task count.
Asana also helps you automate workflows. You can integrate apps like Microsoft Teams and Slack for your team’s processes.
If you’re unsure how to set up a workflow, ask the Asana AI to create a project workflow for you. Located at the top-right of the dashboard, it floats across all tools, meaning you can access it anytime while working.
Asana AI supports different stages of your workflow, including:
- Assigning incoming requests automatically
- Suggesting timelines and resource allocations
- Identifying potential risks
- Drafting content, managing revisions, and monitoring progress
- Generating reports
Pricing: There’s a free plan for individuals and small teams. The paid plan starts at $13.49/month for the Starter plan. You can access Asana on iOS, Android, or desktop.
Key features of Asana:
- Project management
- Goals and reporting
- Workflows and automation
- Resource management
- Asana AI
Wrike
| Best AI tool for project management | Key features | Pricing |
| Wrike | Project Management Views & Reporting Reporting & BI Work Intelligence Workflow Automation Resource Management Resource & Capacity Planning Asset Creation & Collaboration | Wrike offers a 14-day free trial, and paid plans start at $10/month |
Overview
Wrike offers project management software that lets you plan, execute, and complete projects. It simplifies collaboration and keeps everything organized. On its project management board, you’ll find workflow features, process automation, templates, risk monitoring, and resource management.
One of the standout templates is the project scheduling template, which helps you break large projects into actionable tasks, assign due dates, and track team progress. There’s also a project management operations template that keeps portfolios organized and on track to meet organizational KPIs. It also helps you plan, evaluate, and schedule new project requests.
Wrike integrates with tools like GitHub, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. While Wrike has many great features, I wanted to see how it actually uses AI in project management. So, I tried it out.
Using Wrike
Just like Asana, Wrike asks about your role and company. Its AI-powered features include generative AI, AI-recommended tasks, AI subitem creation, AI mobile assistance, AI action items, and AI project risk prediction.
To use generative AI, you need to enable it in settings. Once activated, you can edit comments, fix typos, change tones, shorten text, translate, and summarize with AI.
You can also use the AI to create project management documents and project briefs. The AI assistant appears on the board—just click it, follow the prompts, and it will generate a project document based on your project. If you’re satisfied, you can insert it directly into your workspace.
Pricing: Wrike offers a 14-day free trial, and paid plans start at $10/month. You can use it on mobile or continue with the web app
Key features of Wrike:
- Project Management
- Views & Reporting
- Reporting & BI
- Work Intelligence
- Workflow Automation
- Resource Management
- Resource & Capacity Planning
- Asset Creation & Collaboration
Trello
| Best AI for project management | Key features | Pricing |
| Trello | Automation Power-Ups Templates Integrations | Trello offers a free plan, a Standard plan for $5 per user/month, and a Premium plan for $10 per user/month |
Overview
Trello is another great tool for project management teams to track product development and feature requests from clients and customers. You can use it to collaborate with members of other teams, like marketing or sales.
I like that it provides project managers with a variety of templates to kick-start a project—this made me like it. Also, the Power-Ups feature lets you connect tools like Google Drive and Slack with Trello, and lots of other tools.
Trello integrates with Atlassian Intelligence for AI-powered features. You can use the AI to brainstorm ideas, identify and organize action items, and create action plans and checklists.
Using Trello
If you don’t see the AI feature on your workspace dashboard, you may need to activate it. You can do this from your workspace settings under Atlassian Intelligence.
Initially, when I logged in, I kept looking for the AI feature (Atlassian Intelligence) but couldn’t find it—until I realized it’s only available for Enterprise and Premium users.
With Trello, you can find issues in Jira, obtain development insights like running queries, create charts, summarize data, get trend suggestions, receive subtask recommendations, and generate AI responses. Additionally, Atlassian Intelligence includes an AI teammate called Rovo.
Pricing: Trello offers a free plan, a Standard plan for $5 per user/month, and a Premium plan for $10 per user/month.
Key features of Trello:
- Automation
- Power-Ups
- Templates
- Integrations
Monday
| Best AI tool for project management | Key features | Pricing |
| Monday | Automation Integration AI Kanban Gantt charts Forms | Monday offers a free plan. The paid plan starts at $12/month for the Basic plan. |
Overview
Monday is a work management tool that supports project management. You can use it to track portfolio performance and oversee project completion. The tool helps identify risks before they happen and lets you manage the entire project lifecycle. For project management, Monday offers features like Gantt charts, dependencies, baselines, critical paths, milestones, time tracking, project intake and approvals, dashboards, reporting, and different views.
The tool has a Monday AI, which can assist you in creating campaigns and brainstorming creative ideas. For task management, Monday AI acts as an operational assistant for creating and managing task and feedback tickets. It can also analyze feedback and provide insights to support product development.
Using Monday
When you start using Monday, it asks about your role and what you need it for—just like other tools.
When setting up a project board, you can choose from templates. You can start from scratch, select project management-specific templates, or go for AI-powered templates. You click on the AI-powered option and pick a template, then use it.
The AI assistant also appears on your project board, allowing you to generate summaries or write content with AI.
Pricing: Monday offers a free plan. The paid plan starts at $12/month for the Basic plan.
Key features of Monday:
- Automation
- Integration
- AI
- Kanban
- Gantt charts
- Forms
Aside from these four tools, I found nine other tools you can choose from.
Top 9 AI tools for project management
- Clickup
- Taskade
- Notion
- Basecamp
- Jira
- Forecast
- Motion
- Hive
- Height
How to choose an AI tool for project management
Searching for these tools, I made a list of factors that should guide you in choosing the best AI tool for project management.
Needs: Identify exactly what your projects require. Determine which features are important to your needs, such as task automation, collaboration tools, or real-time tracking.
Features: Look for tools that match your specific needs. Some must-have features include automated task management, real-time progress tracking, risk management, and collaboration.
User-friendly and ease of use: The tool should be intuitive and easy to use, so you and your team don’t need much training to get started.
Security and compliance: Ensure the tool meets your organization’s security standards and complies with protecting sensitive project data.
Support: Pick a tool that offers good customer support and helpful training videos and other resources to make onboarding easier.
Cost: Compare pricing against the value the tool brings to your project management process. Also, check how it stacks up against other tools with similar features before making your final choice.
What to look for in AI tools for project management
- AI-powered features
- Built for teams
- Extra features
- Automation and integrations
- Reputation and reviews
- User-friendly interface
- Quality of AI output
- Pricing and value
Frequently Asked Questions about AI tools for project management
What is the best AI tool for project management?
The best AI tools for project management combine core project management features with AI.
How do you implement AI in project management?
You implement AI in project management by using it to handle most of the tasks you would typically do manually. Many tools now offer AI-powered features, and if your current tool lacks AI features, you can check out the options listed in this article.
What are some common challenges with AI in project management?
- Cost and pricing
- Technological limitations
- Over-reliance on AI tools
Conclusion
I used to think being a project manager wasn’t that stressful, until my interest led me to take a closer look.
To be sure the stress wasn’t just in my head, I asked a few project managers about their experiences. They confirmed that they often feel overwhelmed, sometimes reaching a breaking point. When I dug deeper, I discovered that many of their tasks could be automated with AI to make the workload more manageable.
In this article, I’ve reviewed four of the best AI tools you can use as a project manager to work more efficiently and reduce stress. You’ll find screenshots showcasing how these tools handle key tasks, along with their pricing, so you can make an informed decision.
One thing to keep in mind: AI tools are helpful, but you should always review their output to ensure quality.
Disclaimer!
This publication, review, or article (“Content”) is based on our independent evaluation and is subjective, reflecting our opinions, which may differ from others’ perspectives or experiences. We do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the content and disclaim responsibility for any errors or omissions it may contain.
The information provided is not investment advice and should not be treated as such, as products or services may change after publication. By engaging with our Content, you acknowledge its subjective nature and agree not to hold us liable for any losses or damages arising from your reliance on the information provided.
