The Future-Ready PM: While AI Has the Answers, People Leadership Still Matters

Ways of Working, Power Skills, Business Acumen

Tim Boyd

Senior Program Manager

Northrop Grumman

About the Presentation

AI can generate the plan and identify risks to the plan. But it can’t build trust, align a team, or carry a decision through execution.

As artificial intelligence becomes embedded across the project lifecycle, organizations are rapidly investing in tools that improve speed, automation, and access to information. But faster outputs do not guarantee better outcomes. In many cases, they expose gaps in leadership, communication, and alignment that technology cannot solve.

Project managers are now expected to interpret AI-generated outputs, guide teams through uncertainty, and align stakeholders around decisions that are often incomplete or evolving. In complex engineering programs, these moments directly impact delivery performance, stakeholder confidence, and program outcomes.

This session focuses on the power skills that are not being replaced by AI, and are becoming more critical because of it. Drawing from real-world program experience from large leading multi-disciplined teams through the project lifecycle, it highlights how capabilities such as self-awareness, communication under uncertainty, and influence without authority directly shape execution and decision quality. Participants will gain practical insight into how these skills improve team alignment, reduce miscommunication, and enable more effective leadership in fast-moving environments.

Learning Objectives:

·         Understand which human-centered skills are becoming more critical in AI-enabled environments

·         Recognize how leadership gaps impact team alignment and execution outcomes

·         Learn how communication and influence shape decision adoption

About Tim Boyd

Tim Boyd is a keynote speaker, senior technical leader, and Caltech instructor who speaks where execution gets real. With a decades of experience in systems engineering and program management, he has led complex, multi-disciplined and high-stakes efforts inside the aerospace industry. He is known for his focus on the human side of execution that shapes success long before a milestone slips; influence, emotional intelligence, uncertainty, failure, and change. Tim is known for a candid, grounded style that challenges audiences to think deeper, lead better, and act sooner. He also hosts Curious and Cuirky, a podcast exploring how leaders think, choose, and adapt in fast-moving technical environments.