Guest editorial: Building a sustainable future with AI: the next frontier in project management

Purpose The special issue aimed to reposition artificial intelligence (AI) in project management discussions. Instead of treating AI as a back-end optimization tool, the editorial foregrounds how it intersects with leadership, sustainability and ethics. The intention was to capture scholarship that questions, not just celebrates, AI’s growing role in shaping project practices and outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The editorial synthesizes contributions from six papers selected through the call for papers, Building a Sustainable Future with AI: The Next Frontier in Project Management. The articles employ varied methodologies, ranging from empirical survey research and reinforcement learning models to conceptual reviews. The editorial weaves these diverse studies into three thematic clusters: socio-technical transitions, ethical and justice dimensions and methodological innovation. Findings Across the issue, three insights emerge. First, leadership and collaboration remain central; AI does not replace these functions but rather reshapes them in subtle ways. Second, ethical considerations, such as equity, trust and accountability, are no longer peripheral but critical to understanding AI’s impact on project systems. Third, methodological innovation, especially through learning algorithms and sustainability analytics, is expanding the research terrain. At the same time, gaps persist in areas such as environmental impact assessment, stakeholder equity and adaptive monitoring, which signal directions for future inquiry. Originality/value The editorial adds value by situating AI and sustainability as intertwined, rather than parallel, concerns in project management. It frames AI as both a technical and socio-ethical phenomenon, and it urges researchers to embrace the complexity of that duality. By highlighting underexplored areas alongside emergent contributions, the special issue pushes project management scholarship beyond efficiency metrics toward questions of justice, responsibility and long-term sustainability.