The PhD-Level AI Models That Can't Hold a Conversation
What happens when the most sophisticated AI models can ace PhD-level reasoning tests but struggle to maintain a coherent conversation with a subject matter expert? This paradox defined much of 2025, and it's reshaping how the project management profession approaches artificial intelligence in 2026.
In a recent conversation with Mike Clayton, a leading voice in project management and author of several books on the subject, we reflected on a year that saw both remarkable technological advances and sobering realisations about AI's current limitations. What we observed throughout 2025 confirmed something we've been saying for a while: the gap between benchmark performance and real-world utility remains the industry's most urgent challenge.
In this conversation, we discuss the evolving landscape of AI in project management, highlighting key trends and challenges from 2025 and predictions for 2026. We explore the illusion of intelligence in AI, the responsibility of project professionals in governance, the impact of hallucinations on implementation, and the shift from pilot projects to full-scale adoption. The discussion also touches on the quality of AI-generated content, the role of data centers, and the emergence of vibe coding and robotics, ultimately questioning whether the future of project management will be evolutionary or revolutionary.
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