Frequently Asked Questions​

The AIPGF is a structured yet flexible framework designed to guide organisations in the ethical, efficient, and effective use of AI in their projects and programmes. It provides practical guidance and templates, the necessary processes, roles, and principles to manage AI-related risks in projects, while maximising its benefits.  Whilst Standards like the ISO/IEC 42001 provide high level organisation-wide governance requirements, the AIPGF activates these international standards at a practical level in AI-powered projects specifically. 

 

AI introduces unique challenges that traditional project management frameworks don’t explicitly address. These include the “black box” nature of some AI tools, the risk of algorithmic bias, complex data privacy issues, and the need for clear human oversight. The AIPGF provides a necessary layer of governance to manage these specific risks.

Since 2023, several international and regional standards about AI governance have been published.  Three examples are:

  • ISO/IEC 42001 
  • EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689)
  • NIST AI Risk Management Framework, developed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology

These are examples of robust standards that provide a framework for organisations to manage the risks and responsibilities associated with developing, deploying, and using artificial intelligence. They aim to ensure that AI is used in a way that is ethical, transparent and trustworthy. These standards are generalised at the organisation level for any use of AI in any scenario.

What’s missing is guidance on how to practically govern the ethical, efficient and effective use of AI in projets specifically. That’s where the AIPGF comes in: practical, tangible guidance for governing AI use in projects and programmes.

No, it enhances your existing methodology or project approach by embedding ethical, efficient and effective use of AI assistance throughout the project life cycle.  The AIPGF integrates seamlessly with any chosen project methodology or approach.  Integrating the AIPGF into your existing processes means you can govern, and demonstrate governance of, AI usage in project environments.

A wide range of professionals will benefit from understanding and being able to apply the AIPGF:

ACCOUNTABLE FOR GOVERANCE OF AI USAGE: PORFOLIO AND OVERSIGHT ROLES

  • Portfolio Leaders
  • Strategic Programme Office (SPO), Project Management Office (PMO) and Enterprise PMO Leaders
  • Project Sponsors and Steering Committees/ Boards

RESPONSIBLE FOR GOVERNANCE OF AI USAGE: PROJECT AND PROGRAMME DELIVERY ROLES

  • Programme Managers
  • Change Managers
  • Project Managers
  • Project Coordinators
  • Project Core Team Members

GOVERNANCE, RISK AND COMPLIANCE ROLES

  • Chief AI Officers and Digital Transformation Leaders
  • Other Organisational Leaders and Executives
  • Internal and External Auditors
  • Legal, Compliance and Regulatory Teams

No, the AIPGF is about governing the use of AI assistance in project envoronments.  This could include projects that create AI solutions.  However, it is also relevant to any type of project – engineering, marketing, research, biotech and more.  Any type of project or programme that uses one or more AI tools to assist the project effort will benefit from applying the AIPGF.

The term “AI-assisted projects” refers to projects and programmes that are using AI tools.  These tools could be used to assist in project management, e.g. drafting a Business Case, a Project Charter, a Risk Assessment, Stakeholder Mapping, etc.  AI tools could also be used to create project deliverables, e.g. a project to host an event may use an AI tool to draft the event Agenda, or provide the text for a keynote speech.  A marketing project may use an AI tool to design the Marketing Campaign.
These are all examples of AI assistance in projects.  

Tools that provide AI assistance in projects can include Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude.  It could include tools that are integrated with your software suite, e.g. Microsoft Copilot.  There are also AI-powered project management tools like Taskade, ClickUp, Forecast and many others.  With the rise of task automation through AI Agents, governance of AI usage is particularly important.  

The framework is built on three guiding principles:
  • Human-Centricity: Ensures that AI serves as a tool to augment human capabilities, with human oversight and accountability remaining central.
  • Transparency: Requires that AI’s role and decision-making processes are explainable, auditable, and clearly understood by stakeholders.
  • Adaptability: Allows the framework to be scaled and tailored to fit the specific context, size, complexity, and AI maturity of any project or organisation.

Yes. The Adaptability principle is key here. For smaller projects, you can apply the “spirit” of the framework in a lightweight manner. For example, instead of creating separate, formal documents, you could add an “AI Assistance” section to your existing Project Charter and include AI-related risks in your standard risk register.

The framework is designed to be scalable. The Foundation Stage helps you define the scope of AI use for your specific project. A project using AI for simple document co-creation will have a much lighter governance footprint than a high-risk project using AI for automated decision-making in a regulated environment.
 
The AIPG-CMM (Capability Maturity Model) is an assessment tool that accompanies the AIPGF. While the AIPGF tells you how to implement AI governance, the AIPG-CMM tells you how well your organization is doing it. It provides a structured way to benchmark your current maturity and identify areas for improvement.
 
he five levels are:
  1. Ad Hoc: No formal governance.
  2. Initialised: Governance is minimally defined and inconsistently applied.
  3. Standardised: Governance processes are documented and repeatable.
  4. Enterprised: Governance is institutionalised and integrated across the organization.
  5. Optimised: Governance is continuously refined and strategically aligned.
No. Most AI maturity models focus on an organization’s overall AI adoption, technical capabilities, or data science prowess. The AIPG-CMM is uniquely focused on the maturity of AI governance specifically within project and programme environments.
 
The CMM provides a clear roadmap. By completing the assessment, you can identify your current maturity level (e.g., “Level 2 – Initialised”). The framework then provides actionable recommendations for what your organization needs to do to advance to the next level, such as formalizing policies, establishing clearer roles, or implementing regular audits.
 

The AI Project Governance Framework (AIPGF) offers a sensible methodology for facilitating ethical, efficient and effective human-AI project collaboration.  

  • Can be integrated with a chosen project management methodology or approach, such as Agile, PRINCE2, PMBOK or hybrid approaches.
  • Provides structured and scalable AI governance, supporting projects and programmes of varying size, complexity, risk and AI adoption maturity.
  • Facilitates and encourages a high standard of ethical, efficient and effective use of AI in projects and programmes.

By implementing the Framework, organisations can systematically govern AI use across their portfolio of projects and programmes, as their AI adoption scales and as AI tools evolve.  The accompanying  AI Project Governance Capability Maturity Model (AIPG-CMM) can be used to establish maturity benchmarks and actions towards continuous improvement.

 

Disclaimer

The AIPGF is intended to provide practical guidance for governing the use of AI in projects and programmes. The author (Emanuela Giangregorio) expressly disclaims all liability to any person or organisation arising directly or indirectly from the use of, or for any errors or omissions in, the AIPGF guidance. The adoption and application of the guidance is at organisation discretion and is their sole responsibility.   

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