Generative AI as a Project Stakeholder: Shifting Team Dynamics and Decision Making Power in 2024

Abstract

The rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) is reshaping the foundations of project delivery, transforming it from a human centric discipline into a hybrid ecosystem where intelligent systems exert tangible influence on decisions, workflows, and team behaviours. This article examines the emerging phenomenon of Gen AI functioning as a project stakeholder and active participant capable of shaping scope, interpreting risk, generating artefacts, and prompting structural changes in governance and collaboration. Through analysis of early survey data, organisational case observations, and evolving governance practices, the study explores how decision speed, approval thresholds, and scope evolution are shifting in AI augmented project environments. The findings reveal that while Gen AI significantly enhances operational efficiency and decision quality, it also redistributes power within teams, introduces new accountability challenges, and amplifies the need for ethical oversight and transparent model governance. To support responsible adoption, the article proposes a set of strategic recommendations involving stakeholder remapping, accountability clarity, human AI collaboration training, data and model governance, decision power monitoring, ethical safeguards, and human centric review structures. Overall, the study argues that Gen AI is no longer a passive tool but an influential, embedded actor in the project decision flow, one that requires deliberate integration strategies to ensure that human judgement, organisational values, and ethical integrity remain central to project outcomes.