The new Microsoft Project Manager Agent and renewed Planner with premium features utilize artificial intelligence and bring new solutions to project management that support the work of project managers and teams even more effectively.

The updated Planner application is now available in Teams. When creating a new plan, you can choose either the familiar Planner or the Planner with Premium features option, which offers more extensive functions. The Premium version offers advanced tools, such as main and subtask management, more flexible scheduling, links between tasks, and resource management. A visual Gantt chart is also available to support scheduling.

Comprehensive portfolio views and Power BI reports, which help you understand the overall picture of projects, support monitoring plans.

Premium plans also include the Copilot assistant, which can, for example, suggest new subtasks for a plan or identify potential bottlenecks in a project. In spring 2025, Copilot will be available in public preview, and its use is included in the Planner and Project service package 3 license.

Project Manager Agent adapts to your plans

You can use the Project Manager Agent at the beginning of the planning process. Describe what kind of plan you are working on and attach supporting material, such as tender documents or project instructions. The agent will use this information to create a plan that meets your needs.

After this, the Project Manager Agent will start building the plan based on the information you enter. Soon, the tasks in the plan will appear in the Board view.

You can then ask the agent to refine the tasks, which will automatically start adding concrete actions inside the task boxes.

AI structures tasks for you

For example, an agent can refine the “Create a marketing plan” task by offering concrete steps to complete it. These steps are presented in the task box within the Loop component.

The Project Manager Agent can produce several detailed work steps that you can use to advance the work. You can edit and comment on the suggestions if necessary.

The goal is to make your work easier by providing a clear, step-by-step progression model that saves time and brings structure to your work.

Multiple agents working together to support project management

The Project Manager Agent is based on a group of artificial intelligence agents, each specializing in its area, such as data processing, task structuring, or scheduling. The agents also communicate with each other, which significantly improves project management.

The Project Manager Agent will be available in public preview in spring 2025. Its use requires a “Planner and Project service plan 3” license and a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

More to come – automatic reports and fewer routine tasks

The Project Manager Agent will receive more features in 2025. One of the most significant is automatic project status reporting, which aims to ease the project manager’s routine tasks.

You will get up-to-date status reports without manual data collection, which makes it easier, for example, to prepare weekly meetings and make project management more transparent.

Mikko Sorsa
Senior Consultant, Partner