Who’s Steering Whom and in What Direction? An Experiment on AI Versus Top Management Decision-Making in Projects

Employing classical and behavioral decision theories, this article explores, based on decision cases, how decisions by AI and humans might differ in the context of top management decision-making in projects. Based on a phenomenological analysis of 37 top managers’ responses and corresponding answers provided by artificial intelligence (AI), findings indicate that, as project decision-making becomes hybrid, systematic differences in important dimensions have the potential to steer projects into different directions. Aimed at provoking thought, this pioneering article proposes a conceptual framework for project decision-making in the age of generative AI (GenAI) and highlights theoretical and practical implications of carelessly delegating big decisions to AI.