Description
On June 3rd 2025 SKEMA Publika and SKEMA Business School’s Specialised Masters in Project and Programme Management organised a conference on the theme “How will AI transform our learning? – An exploration with future project managers”. Desmond McGetrick, Director of 𝗦𝗞𝗘𝗠𝗔 𝗠𝗦® 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘀 and Associate Professor introduced the conference by presenting the speakers.
Frédérique Vidal, Director of Development at SKEMA Publika, presented the report ‘The digital transition: impacts and dependences’. During her keynote, she emphasised that AI represents a major change in our relationship to education and work, but the human will always remain at the centre.
Jean-François Guinvarc’h moderated the panel made up of Margherita Pagani, Salma André and Nosing Doeuk . Three questions were addressed:
- How does AI stimulate creativity and critical thinking?
- What is the impact of generative AI on students’ mental health? Is the overall impact positive or negative?
- What qualities will an employer look for in a project management candidate in the age of AI?
Recommendations
- AI will not replace humans, because this technology is a tool based on data mining and self-learning. In other words, it is a technology that has no capacity for critical thinking that only human beings can have. As a result, we need to educate people from a very early age about what AI is and what it is not. And, above all, to teach critical thinking. It’s about learning to question sources and to qualify information coming from an AI.
- Designers of AI should demonstrate ethics by design early in the stage of creating the algorithm. This means incorporating good practice right from the start. Algorithm designers should ask themselves the following questions: What general standards should be put in place? What moral, human or ethical considerations should be adopted?
- Given that AI, in its creation process, is based on existing data, the question of intellectual property arises. Who is the author of the results created by AI? This means that the legal framework on intellectual property needs to evolve to take account of this new reality in relation to AI.
“One of the biggest risks of AI, if we don’t understand it or use it properly, is standardisation. That is, anyone will be able to ask a question and the AI will answer in the best way possible. And in the end everyone will have the same answer.” (Frédérique Vidal)
‘With AI, we’ve gone from the era of the black pen where we create things to the era of the red pen where we correct what the AI suggests.’ (Nosing Doeuk)
“Today, with advances in the field of AI, we have an accentuation of the phenomenon of attributing consciousness to AI. This represents opportunities but also risks.” (Salma André)
‘AI represents an asset in its ability to deconstruct the creative process.’ (Margherita Pagani)
Q&A with the students
So that AI doesn’t catch us off guard. What skills will become essential in the AI era to carry out technical and analytical work?
We need to develop critical thinking and free will. Today, it is essential to know how to question AI’s response. It is this ability that will make the difference in a company between an AI and a human being. The company needs the differentiating factor, which is the human factor. It means understanding how AI works and how to use it properly.
What are the ethical boundaries that should never be crossed in the use of AI?
We need to work on the way we interrogate the data. This means putting in place the practice of ethics by design to avoid bias from the moment the algorithms are created. Ethics must concern everyone, because it’s a human issue.
Will AI replace humans in the workplace?
AI will not replace humans, but it will complement them. However, we need to be aware of the biases and weaknesses of AI. Critical thinking and freedom of action are the two ingredients that will make it possible to identify these biases and weaknesses of AI.
Can AI help us in our job search?
In a job search, AI tries to identify similarities between the job advert and the candidate’s CV. More specifically, AI will look at the keywords, so to highlight the CV it is important to include the keywords present in the job advert. It’s important to be honest in your CV, because then you have to pass the job interview.
