Every other month, the Curator’s Pick brings you selected learning content from the PMI library. Each article spotlights one key topic drawn from PMI focus areas, PMI Switzerland Members’ Choice, or emerging trends.

While AI is a great tool for managing complexity, it’s simultaneously one of the many drivers of project complexity. Combine this with factors like working with interconnected stakeholders, collaborating with distributed teams, or even regulatory uncertainty, and you find yourself in a place where complexity in projects is no longer the exception. It’s become the rule. 

This begs the question: if complexity is becoming the norm when it comes to project environments, what do project professionals need to do differently to navigate it successfully?

With complexity being one of the many threats to project success (with reportedly almost a third of complex projects reaching failure), it’s important to recognize the signs of complexity early.

The PMI’s 2026 Pulse of the Profession report explains complexity by clearly defining it as an unpredictable and dynamic interaction of interdependencies. It then goes on to outline the three dimensions where complexity originates, as well as the factors that drive it. It wraps up by showing the negative impacts it can have on projects and the best practices project professionals can use to navigate complexity and ensure project success. After reading this report, you might find yourself viewing things through a different lens and asking yourself questions like, “Is the complexity structural, or is it external?”

Once you’ve identified complexity, you may find yourself having to make decisions in ambiguous situations. After all, complexity and ambiguity go hand in hand. Our next resource, Training Manual for Managing Complexities and Ambiguities in Projects, lays out decision-making in two parts. The first part is especially valuable, helping project professionals assess their own tolerance for ambiguity and their desire to work in complex environments. The second part shares how project professionals can master emotional capability and leverage critical thinking as well as organizational resources to make effective decisions in ambiguous situations.  

Even after making effective decisions, many project professionals face the complexity of leading without the formal authority needed to implement and enforce those decisions. Our Project HEADWAY webinar series includes an Influence Without Authority session, which addresses the challenges of leading without authority, how to exercise influence, as well as how to build a personal influence strategy to optimize your approach in various situations. 

But what’s really intriguing is that AI can either be a tool used to drive success or be a driver of project failure. It can handle complex work better, yet increases complexity by creating new dependencies and uncertainty. This all depends on how it’s used (or not used) by teams. The Built for Complexity: How AI is Redefining Project Success webinar shows how creating an action plan for AI-enabled project delivery can accelerate learning and help manage risks. It also highlights the importance of team collaboration in creating adaptive project teams that respond well to complexity.

Successful project professionals aren’t the ones who don’t manage complex projects. They also aren’t necessarily the ones who eliminate uncertainty. They are the ones who are better equipped to operate within it, make sound decisions with incomplete information, and influence action when they don’t have formal authority. Most importantly, they adapt their responses to each situation. Explore the resources highlighted in this Curator’s Pick (as well as other PMI articles and webinars) to learn how you can better recognize, navigate, and respond to complexity in your own projects.