AI is showing up everywhere in software delivery, but project management is where a lot of the real friction lives. Newly appointed Planview CEO Matt Zilli talks through why planning and delivery still break down inside modern organizations, even when teams have more data and more tools than ever.

Zilli’s point is simple: the problem is not visibility in the abstract. It is that work is scattered across different teams that make decisions in different ways, using different systems, with different operating models. That fragmentation makes it hard to see what is actually happening, where dependencies are forming, and what needs attention before a small delay turns into a wider miss.

He argues that AI can help by turning that messy, cross tool picture into something teams can act on. Instead of people spending time chasing updates, filling out status fields, or maintaining sprawling dependency maps, AI can pull signals from the systems teams already use and surface where work is drifting off track, where risk is accumulating, and what tradeoffs matter for the next decision.

Zilli also lays out a practical view of agentic AI. The technology is moving fast, but most organizations are not going to hand over full autonomy overnight. For 2026, he expects more proofs of concept and guided deployments where teams build confidence in specific use cases. In lower risk scenarios, that can extend beyond spotting issues to taking action, like adjusting resource allocations or sequencing work differently.

For project managers, agile coaches, and delivery leaders, the goal is less low value coordination work and more time spent on the decisions that actually move outcomes. Zilli thinks that shift can reduce surprises, lower stress, and improve forecasting, not because planning becomes perfect, but because teams get earlier, clearer signals about what is really happening in the work.