A systematic review of generative AI usage for IT project management

TL;DR

This systematic review synthesizes current research on generative AI in IT project management, highlighting dominant use of GPT, exploratory research stage, and promising future directions like AI agents and hybrid networks.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of techniques, applications, and trends in generative AI for IT project management, identifying key research gaps and future directions.

Findings

GPT dominates current studies, mainly using prompt engineering.

Research is still exploratory, with limited practical adoption.

Three promising research directions identified: AI agents, role-based AI, hybrid networks.

Abstract

This paper aims to synthesize current knowledge on generative AI in IT project management using the PRISMA methodology to provide researchers with a comprehensive perspective on techniques, applications, adoption trends, limitations, and integration across project management tools and process groups. The analysis reveals a clear dominance of OpenAI's GPT in the included studies but relying primarily on prompt engineering, suggesting that research in this area remains at an exploratory stage. Finally, it identifies and discusses three promising research directions for AI-enabled project management, including process group-specific AI agents, project role-based AI agents, and hybrid collaborative networks that enable human-guided orchestration.