2026 PPM Trends: AI Meets Digital Transformation

2026 is the year of the disruption era of PPM.

Ever since the introduction of AI, companies have been experimenting and testing with how to get value. At the same time, the technology has matured and been implemented in standard solutions, so you no longer have to be an AI expert. AI works out of the box, meaning that you can finally take advantage of what the technology offers.

So, when it comes to 2026, AI is just as inevitable as ever. But it’s also a part of a bigger trend in how companies must develop to keep their competitive edge.

AI Frontier Firms 

82% of leaders say they’re confident that they’ll use digital labor to expand workforce capacity in the next 12–18 months.* 

AI is no longer just AI. It’s a diverse set of technologies for different scenarios and use cases – and at different levels.

Microsoft operates with the term “AI Frontier firm”. An AI frontier firm is a company that has mastered AI in several phases. Phase one is that employees have their own AI assistant to help with emails, idea generation, data analysis, and more. Phase two is having human-agent teams where agents join teams to assist and handle general tasks. In both phases AI is dependent on a human activating them for a task but in phase two the AI Agents is more specialized. Finally, the third phase is fully AI-operated workflows with autonomous agents that are managed by humans but not necessarily initiated by a human.

• AI Assistants: Everyone has their own digital copilot helping with admin, production, and analysis

• Human-Agents Teams: Digital colleagues join project teams with defined areas of responsibility 

• Automated Tasks: AI executes processes end-to-end, with humans providing oversight 

The important thing to note here is that it’s not a three-stage linear maturity model. It is ways of working that co-exist and co-develop. To become an AI firm, you should be piloting all three. 

The right solution depends on the use case. This should be baked into your organizational strategy. Finding out which technology to use and where is what sets AI Frontier Firms apart from companies that simply use AI. 

PMO is the  Centerpiece  for AI 

When it comes to making AI adoption happen in the organization, the PMO is in a unique position. They can guide AI adoption by identifying possibilities and making sure the right AI tools are in place. Because they know the processes so well, they can identify where AI can speak to the challenges and needs of the organization. Here, the PMO should ensure that governance is in place, to keep users – and company data – safe in their AI journey. 

AI adoption happens both top down and bottom up.

At the same time, they don’t have to invent all the use cases. By looking at how AI is already used in the organization, they can get inspiration on where to start – and what to scale to the rest of the organization. In this way, AI adoption happens both top down and bottom up – with the PMO at the center.

Digital transformation

Digital transformation is not a one-and-done. It goes without saying that if you’re still stuck in Excel, you’re setting yourself up for inefficiency: information silos, manual errors, lack of transparency, not to talk about how difficult it can be to become data-driven. A dedicated PPM system creates a single source of truth for projects, portfolios, and performance data. More importantly, it becomes a starting point for continuous digital transformation. With a centralized system, it becomes easier to roll out changes and improvements. Most importantly, it sets a foundation for the next era of PPM: AI-driven portfolio management. AI thrives on access to great data, something Excel can’t provide. If you want to be truly data-driven today – and become an AI Frontier Firm, you need to have a strategy and a plan for your digital transformation.

Strategy  Breakdown  Structure 

The big problem with strategy is that it can get lost in execution. It’s introduced with great fanfare but often ends up in a forgotten PowerPoint somewhere as projects start and priorities shift. Ownership becomes unclear. Accountability blurs.

But strategy is not something you define once and forget. It’s a living, evolving direction that should continuously respond to changes in the market, customer needs, or even just internal learnings. So, who owns and monitors strategy in the long run?

There should be a clear connection from strategy to the way you shape and align your projects and portfolios. Right now, we have KPIs and OKRs that try to provide and measure this alignment, but in the future strategy will be broken down and tied more closely to the work people do every day. I call this strategy breakdown structure.

Strategy Breakdown Structure (SBS) connects strategic objectives to not just portfolios, programs and projects, but the actual day-to-day work. Each organization should find their own way to do this, just like they have their own project models and governance structure.

This makes the PMO the strategic enabler in the organization.

The PMO is in charge of ensuring that the organizational strategy is not only defined, but also activated, tracked, and continuously adapted across the organization and across every level of work.

The PMO is the one that connects strategy to execution. And SBS is a key component.

AI makes things customizable - at scale

One of the coolest things happening right now is how AI is transforming standardization into personalization. For years, designing dashboards, landing pages and UIs has been a compromise between user needs and technological possibilities.

With AI, you get customization at scale.

Imagine a PPM solution with centralized data, but every single user gets a customized experience.

• A project manager might see aumotated progress updates based on real-time delivery data

• A portfolio lead could get dynamix risk predictions personalized to their business unit

• Executives receive AI-curated dashboards highlighting what matters most to their strategic priorities 

You still have trust in your data – the AI component is the view of the data, ensuring the right information automatically flows to the right role or person. Teams no longer have to hunt for relevant information, it’s always there – on tap – for exactly their needs, without compromizing the governance and structure an organization needs.

The future of PPM is AI-driven

As we move into 2026, it’s clear that AI is moving beyond the experimental stage and into essential infrastructure. Now, good, relevant use cases are built into your solutions, so you don’t have to chase innovation; it’s embedded in your tools.

This makes digital transformation and strategy more important than ever. When things are moving fast, you have to know where you’re going and why.

The successful PMOs will be those that adopt AI on multiple levels and deliver information on tap to the organization to stay informed, agile, and ahead of the game.