Artificial intelligence is becoming embedded in project delivery across UK industries, with more than a quarter of professionals reporting the technology is fully integrated into their workflows, according to new research from the Association for Project Management (APM).
The survey of 1,000 project professionals, conducted with Censuswide, found AI adoption spanning construction, engineering, financial services, manufacturing, technology, and transport and logistics. Applications range from automating administrative tasks to forecasting risks and supporting complex decision-making.
Overall, 27% of respondents said AI is fully embedded in their workflows. The most common uses include predicting project outcomes and improving forecasting accuracy (25%), supporting data-driven decision-making (24%), administrative assistance such as summarising documents (23%), and enhancing risk forecasting (22%). Other applications include reporting and dashboards (22%), resource allocation (21%), research (21%) and task scheduling (18%).
The findings suggest AI is moving beyond experimentation to become a strategic capability underpinning project delivery.
Adoption varies by sector. In construction, 28% of professionals said AI is fully embedded, with tools used for planning, scheduling and risk forecasting on complex projects. In engineering, 25% reported full integration, particularly for predictive modelling, systems optimisation and interpreting large datasets.
In technology, 23% said AI is embedded across multiple stages of the project lifecycle, while 21% in transport and logistics cited use in resource allocation and real-time decision-making. Financial services reported a 24% adoption rate, with applications including forecasting, compliance and risk identification.
Confidence in using AI is high, with 92% of respondents saying their skills align with the demands of an AI-enabled workplace and 45% describing themselves as “very confident”. However, the research also highlights a perceived need for further development.
The most important future skills identified were ethical decision-making and professional judgement (33%), data literacy and AI-enabled decision-making (33%), leadership in remote and hybrid environments (33%), stakeholder engagement (32%) and technical project management methods (30%).
Respondents also flagged growing ethical concerns, including transparency, accountability and the reliability of AI-generated outputs. Issues such as over-reliance on automation and maintaining creativity were also cited, underscoring the need for governance and professional standards.
APM has launched a prompt engineering learning module aimed at helping project professionals use AI more effectively and responsibly. Chief executive Adam Boddison said the research showed AI was “already transforming project delivery across all sectors”, adding that developing advanced skills would be essential to realising the technology’s potential.
