2026 Project Leadership: AI Adoption and Human-Centred Practice

Are You Feeling the 2026 Project Squeeze?

If you are leading projects in 2026, you are probably feeling tugged in three directions at once: deliver faster, adopt AI, and somehow keep everyone sane and engaged while you do it.

Project leadership is shifting away from “just deliver the scope” towards communication, leadership and creative problem solving as core skills, and the expectations on project leaders have never been higher.

These pressures show up across sectors, including teams working with AI in retail and broader project management trends. Here are some of the big trends shaping our work this year and how to respond without losing the plot or your people.

1. Hybrid Everything (And Why That’s Good News)

Hybrid delivery is no longer the edgy choice; PMI reports a significant rise in hybrid approaches as teams mix agile, waterfall and everything in between to fit the work in front of them.

For project leaders who care about engagement and alignment, this is great news, because it validates the idea that methods should serve people and outcomes, not the other way around. This aligns with many current project management trends we’re seeing across industries.

How To Use Hybrid to Help Your People

Hybrid isn’t just a methodology choice; it is a way of designing the work so humans can actually do their best thinking.

• Start with context, not templates: Decide what parts of the work need structure and what parts need experimentation before you pick a method.

• Use rhythm to create stability: Pair hybrid delivery with clear cadences for check-ins, decisions and retros, so people know when and how work will move.

• Borrow, don’t bolt on: Instead of bolting agile ceremonies onto a waterfall plan, design a “working approach” that fits your stakeholders and decision patterns.

For more on building project rhythm, have a look at the resources on leading change and momentum at 6R’s resources hub.

2. Guardrails For Human-Centred AI

Most project leaders are somewhere between excited and exhausted about generative AI. This includes those navigating AI in project management, AI for project management, and even AI-enabled environments such as AI in retail stores.

The tools are powerful, but many AI rollouts simply bolt technology onto old ways of working, which creates more context switching, invisible learning work and decision fatigue instead of real relief.

Add C-suite expectations of productivity jumps and cost savings, and you have a perfect storm for overwhelm — especially in sectors experimenting with AI adoption and emerging project management AI practices.

Practical AI Guardrails For Project Leaders

Here’s where project leaders can step in as human protectors and sense-makers 👇

• Set data boundaries: Make it standard practice that no identifiable client or employee data goes into open systems, and that prompts are anonymised by default.

• Secure consent: Build explicit consent for AI use into your project kickoff and governance, especially where confidential meetings or commercially sensitive topics are involved.

• Treat AI as a teammate, not a boss: Use AI heavily for options, checks and “what else” thinking, but keep humans responsible for judgment, context and trade-offs - even in AI use cases in the retail industry.

• Name the limits: Be clear with sponsors that AI “might not be there yet”, and that finding the right way to use it takes experimentation, not a single workshop.

If you want tools to help facilitate these conversations, explore the change management and leadership articles at 6r.com.au/resources.

3. Psychological Safety and Expectation Management

Recent surveys highlight a growing gap between executive expectations of AI-driven productivity and employees’ actual experience, with many reporting extra workload and pressure rather than relief.

This is as true for project teams working with AI tools for project management as it is for those experimenting with AI in retail industry applications.

When expectations are unrealistic, and teams are already stretched, AI can feel like yet another thing to juggle, not a genuine support.

Micro-Practices That Protect Your People

You do not need a huge program to lift psychological safety; you need small, consistent practices built into the rhythm of your projects.

• Make expectations explicit: Start by clarifying what AI will and will not do for the project, and what the team is actually accountable for learning and delivering.

• Run retros that include emotions: Build space into retros and health checks for people to talk about emotional load, not just tasks and risks. This is core to psychological safety at work and broader psychological safety at workplace considerations.

• Guard availability: Set visible boundaries around after-hours work, meeting frequency and “online all the time” expectations in hybrid settings.

• Sequence process before systems: In one recent client engagement, making process changes and clarifying ownership before touching the system created visible progress and energy.

4. Communication has more layers than your Gantt Chart

At a recent offsite, communication expert Arabella Macpherson reminded our group that most of what lands in communication is not the words, but how we hold ourselves, our tone, and the environment we create.

In project land, your job is often to move people out of distraction, scepticism and anxiety into a mindset where they can make thoughtful decisions about the future of their systems and work.

This sits at the heart of leadership in project management, including teams exploring AI in project management and related decision environments.

Communication Skills to Embrace in 2026

Many project leaders obsess over slide wording and forget the other 90 per cent of the message.

• Invest in tone and presence: Spend more time on how you show up in rooms, both physical and virtual, rather than just polishing the deck.

• Build rapport relentlessly: Rapport isn’t a nice-to-have; it is the condition that makes it possible for clients and stakeholders to accept suggestions and move.

• Clarify objectives before you communicate: Ask “What decision do we need from this conversation?” and “What state do people need to be in to make it?” before you plan the session.

• Shape where and how work happens: PMs will increasingly influence the environments, rituals and tools that either reduce friction or add to it.

For deeper insight into communication and influence without formal authority, check out the project leadership resources and webinars at 6R.

5. Staying Critical and Creative in an AI World

There are already stories of travellers turning up to non-existent Christmas markets because an AI itinerary said they were there.

Generative AI can sound very confident while being completely wrong, and trusting it blindly is an easy way to create chaos in projects as well as holidays.

This applies to all domains, including teams using AI for project management tools or exploring new patterns in AI in retail.

Keeping Your Grey Matter Switched On

AI is brilliant for speed and breadth, but it cannot replace your judgement, context and ethics.

• Keep reading the research: Use AI to surface sources and angles, then go and read enough of the underlying material to sense-check it.

• Use AI as a second opinion: Ask tools to challenge your plan or your assumptions rather than to write them from scratch.

• Protect your thinking time: Build space into your own week and your team’s week for uninterrupted thinking, not just reacting to information.

• Encourage healthy scepticism: Normalise asking “What might be wrong with this?” as a team habit, whether the idea came from AI, a vendor or the project sponsor.

External perspectives from sources like Harvard Business Review can be useful here, particularly on leadership and project management in an AI context.

Are you ready?

If you are ready to make 2026 the year you explicitly step into the role of “human protector” in your projects, start by choosing one of the trends above and making a small, deliberate shift in your next project cycle.

You can also explore the free tools and guides in the 6R resources section to help you design better rhythms, conversations and guardrails for your team. Or you can book a complimentary call with us.

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