125: How to survive the AI landscape as a PM with PMI's Dr Kelly Heuer

About this episode

AI is changing work fast enough to give every project manager emotional whiplash. New tools, new workflows, new expectations… and somehow you're still expected to hit deadlines, manage stakeholders, and explain for the fifth time why the project scope changed after leadership changed the entire business strategy. In this episode, Kim and Kate sit down with Kelly Heuer from Project Management Institute to talk about the skills that actually survive industry shifts, changing technology, and whatever shiny new buzzword LinkedIn is obsessed with this week. They unpack why "soft skills" are actually the hardest skills in project management, how business acumen separates strategic PMs from task trackers, and why learning to navigate ambiguity matters more now than memorizing formulas from the PMP exam. The conversation also dives into the uncomfortable reality that project success is rarely about perfectly following the original plan. Sometimes the real job is realizing the plan should change in the first place. Along the way, they cover durable vs. perishable skills, why varied career experience is secretly a superpower, how PMs can become more effective strategic partners, and