Episode 545: AI Speeds Up Risk, How Leaders Respond (Premium Preview)

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Episode Summary

AI is changing how projects operate, but speed and automation also introduce new risks that are easier to miss and harder to challenge. This conversation examines how artificial intelligence accelerates existing project warning signs and creates confidence without evidence. Cornelius Fichtner welcomes Matthew Oleniuk, author of The Seven Red Flags of Failing Projects, to revisit four critical red flags through an AI lens. Together, they discuss how AI-driven reporting, task automation, and decision support can intensify output-focused thinking, hide weak outcomes, and create polished narratives that mask real project health. The discussion emphasizes that AI does not introduce entirely new problems but magnifies behaviors that already exist in project environments, especially overconfidence, automation bias, and reduced human challenge.

The conversation revisits output beating outcomes, project drift, performance theater, and stakeholder fade. AI makes each of these patterns move faster by generating more tasks, more options, and more polished dashboards than teams can realistically challenge. Oleniuk explains why AI struggles with human context, adoption, and behavioral signals, while project leaders risk outsourcing not just effort but thinking. Examples from public sector delivery highlight how manual data, governance expectations, and privacy constraints further increase vulnerability when AI-generated insights are accepted at face value.

Rather than positioning AI as a fix, the discussion reinforces leadership discipline, stakeholder connection, and outcome clarity as the true controls. Project managers learn why treating AI like a team member, rather than an authority, helps preserve accountability and judgment. The episode closes with practical self-reflection exercises that help leaders decide where AI supports better work and where it quietly replaces critical thinking.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• Why AI accelerates existing project red flags rather than eliminating them.
• How output-focused reporting becomes more convincing and more dangerous with AI.
• How project drift increases as AI continuously generates new options and directions.
• Why performance theater becomes harder to detect with polished AI dashboards.
• How stakeholder disengagement can grow when AI replaces human communication.

Resources Mentioned

• The Seven Red Flags of Failing Projects – An ebook by Matthew Oleniuk outlining early warning signs in troubled projects.

Quotes from This Episode

• "We are farming out not only the effort, but farming out the thinking, and that is where things get dangerous." – Matthew Oleniuk
• "You are not supposed to lead a project under the influence of AI." – Cornelius Fichtner
• "AI can make things look beautiful without moving the project any closer to completion." – Matthew Oleniuk

Connect with Matthew Oleniuk

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewoleniuk/

Time-Stamped Show Notes

• [00:00] - AI accelerates risk and masks early warning signs.
• [02:00] - Overconfidence, automation bias, and AI as a false second set of eyes.
• [06:30] - Output beats outcomes in AI-supported project environments.
• [17:00] - Project drift accelerates as AI generates endless options.
• [23:30] - Performance theater and polished dashboards hiding weak progress.
• [28:50] - Stakeholder fade and the loss of human connection.
• [36:20] - Practical actions to use AI without losing control.

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