With up to 30 million additional project professionals needed by 2035, new learning and certification offerings from PMI help professionals and organizations lead alongside AI, navigate rising complexity and turn ambition into results.
DETROIT--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE GLOBAL SUMMIT — Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s leading authority for project professionals, today announced three new offerings designed to prepare project managers and organizations for a workplace being reshaped by artificial intelligence, automation, and rising project complexity. Introduced at PMI® Global Summit 2026 in Detroit, the portfolio includes the new Advanced Project Leader (APL)™ certification; the PMI® Foundations: Agentic AI for Project Professionals e-learning course and build lab; and the PMI® Advanced: M.O.R.E. at Scale e-learning course. These critical additions combine fast-moving technical capability with the durable and enduring human skills that transform ambition into results.
“Work is changing fast and the edge will go to those who keep learning,” said Johannes Heinlein, Interim President and CEO of PMI. “Organizations and academic institutions must move faster to equip the workforce with the skills to thrive. Success now demands a balance of technical fluency and human skills like adaptability, problem-solving, and collaboration. PMI is helping professionals and organizations build both.”
That balance is increasingly urgent as AI is already deeply embedded in how projects are led and executed. New data from PMI on the use of AI in the profession found that project professionals are leveraging AI for more rigorous project work, including: research, analysis, and information gathering (77%); creating content, documentation, and project deliverables (69%); and identifying risks, opportunities, and emerging issues (53%). At the same time, rising complexity and accelerating transformation will require up to 30 million additional project professionals by 2035 — making the ability to combine technical fluency with human skills essential to stay at the forefront of the profession.
“Not long ago, many predicted AI would automate most project management tasks and threaten the future of the profession. Instead, we're seeing the opposite. Project professionals are embracing AI and stepping into an even bigger leadership role. Our new research shows just 19% are concerned their employer will replace them with AI,” comments Heinlein. “As agentic AI emerges, the opportunity is clear: project professionals will be essential to governing autonomous systems, delivering business value, and navigating growing complexity.”
Three next-gen offerings for the Future of Project Management
Advanced Project Leader (APL)™ Certification
Complexity is now the operating reality: PMI research found that 81% of project professionals say projects have become more complex in recent years and four in five (80%) complex projects experience some form of negative fallout driven by complexity. Leading that work demands more than tenure or technical knowledge. It requires professionals who can anticipate ripple effects, make adaptive decisions, orchestrate stakeholders, sustain teams under pressure, and keep delivery connected to strategic value. The Advanced Project Leader (APL)™ certification is the new global certification for experienced project professionals to prove they can lead complex, high-consequence work — and for enterprises to identify the talent they can trust with their most critical initiatives.
The APL™ certification is delivered through accredited organizational partners, validating internal advanced practitioner programs against PMI standards for fairness, rigor, and consistency to assess real-world capability for PMO, transformation, learning and development, and talent leaders. It gives employers a more credible signal than reputation alone, and gives accomplished project leaders recognition that reflects the complexity and consequence of the work they already lead.
PMI® Foundations: Agentic AI for Project Professionals
AI agents are moving from assistants to actors: systems that can take steps, make decisions, and execute work. Yet organizations’ ability to oversee and govern this way of working is lagging. The SAP LeanIX Agentic AI Survey 2026 found that 98% of companies had deployed or planned to deploy AI agents, yet only 17% had visibility into agent performance or conformance; and 48% lacked clear roles and responsibilities for managing and governing them.
The new PMI® Foundations: Agentic AI for Project Professionals e-learning from PMI gives project professionals the literacy and judgment to scope, oversee, and govern AI agents responsibly, without requiring a coding or data science background. The course also includes a hands-on “Build Lab” that helps learners turn agentic AI concepts into practical capability. Participants build an agent in their platform of choice — including Claude.ai, Microsoft Copilot Studio, or their organization’s own tool — then diagnose performance, refine scope and oversight, and prepare the agent for team use. Learners leave with a functioning agent and a one-page Stakeholder Brief they can use to hand off their work with confidence.
PMI® Advanced: M.O.R.E. at Scale
Project success is not created by project teams alone. Leaders help shape the signals, structures, incentives and decisions that determine whether teams can deliver value. Derived from PMI cutting-edge research on project success, M.O.R.E. is a set of mindsets and behaviors that can dramatically improve project outcomes – a critical advantage as the gap between strategy and execution continues to grow. PMI research shows project success scores rising from 27 to 94 when project professionals lead with the complete M.O.R.E. mindset: Manage Perceptions, Own Success, Relentlessly Reassess, and Expand Perspective.
The new M.O.R.E. at Scale e-learning course from PMI is the first M.O.R.E. course designed for executive sponsors, people leaders, and PMO and governance stakeholders. Through concise research, realistic leadership scenarios, and guided reflection, it helps leaders recognize and change the conditions that either enable or constrain project success.
New Partnership for AI Change Management
PMI is also announcing a new strategic partnership with Prosci, a global leader in change management, as organizations grapple with the people and organizational changes required to realize value from AI. Prosci’s 2026 State of AI Adoption study of 1,553 workers in the US and UK found that while roughly two in three now use AI regularly at work, the share of organizations getting the best results from AI has not grown since 2024, and today’s biggest challenges sit in verifying output, designing governance and coordinating adoption across teams. The partnership brings together PMI expertise in project leadership and Prosci’s expertise in change management to help organizations navigate the human and organizational changes required to turn AI adoption into business value. As an early initiative under the partnership, PMI and Prosci will launch a limited pilot of a new professional certification at Global Summit, focused on AI adoption, organizational change and business value realization.
Together, the launches address the future of work at three levels: the technical fluency to lead alongside AI agents; verified capability to lead the most complex project work; and the organizational conditions that allow teams to deliver greater value. They are part of the broader commitment by PMI to career-long learning — helping professionals stay current, remain relevant, and lead through whatever comes next.
About Project Management Institute (PMI)
PMI is the leading authority in project success. Since 1969, PMI has shone a light on the people and advanced practices behind successful projects. Supported by a global community of millions of project professionals and by thousands of corporations, government agencies and academic institutions, PMI provides the knowledge, resources and certifications to lead projects and transformations effectively and responsibly. Join PMI in elevating our world – one project at a time. Connect with us at www.pmi.org, linkedin.com/company/projectmanagementinstitute, on Instagram @pmi_org, and on TikTok @PMInstitute.
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