AI Agents in PPM Express act as intelligent assistants that automatically analyze your project data. They detect missing or inconsistent information, highlight potential issues, propose corrections and improvements, and suggest items directly within project sections, allowing project managers to stay proactive and maintain project quality with less manual effort.
AI Agents are divided into three groups, and their behavior depends on the type of agent you use:
- Some agents create suggested items directly in your PPM Express project sections (Risks, Issues, Deliverables).
- Others generate informational cards in the PPM Insights section that summarize key findings and provide a clear overview of identified blind spots and insights.
Enabling AI Agents
The AI Agents feature can be enabled by a PPM Express Administrator in Tenant Settings -> Features and Modules. It is turned off by default.
By default, a built-in PPM Express integration with OpenAI is used. However, once the feature is enabled, administrators can configure the Integration Type on the Tenant Settings page -> AI Agents section, by providing the following:
- an API key
- a Model (GPT-4o is used by default)
It is recommended to use models that handle at least 128,000 tokens. Otherwise, some agent executions may fail. - an Endpoint
When enabled, AI Agents are automatically created for your tenant, and all users can start using them immediately.
Working with AI Agents
To start using AI Agents, perform the following:
- Open the required Project.
- Click the ellipsis (⋯) button on the right.
- Select AI Agents.
This will open the AI Agents menu.
Under Agents Subscription, users will see a list of available agents and can perform several actions:
Subscribe the project to specific agents so they run automatically according to the system schedule: 1:00 UTC for EU tenants and 20:00 UTC for US tenants.
View results from the last run, including status, time, the user who ran the agent, run details, and the option to rerun the agent or return to the AI Agents menu.
Copy the agent’s execution result URL for embedding.
The copied URL can be used to embed results into PPM Express pages or sections (via extensions or embedded content). The information on this link shows the latest run result, and agents can also be re-run or refreshed directly from the embedded section.
Run selected agents manually.
When a user runs an agent, the resulting data appears in the corresponding project sections.
When a user subscribes to an agent, it runs automatically according to the schedule, and the resulting data appears in the PPM Insights AI project section.
Also, clicking the Regenerate button in the PPM Insights AI Project section runs all agents to which the project is subscribed.
AI Agents Groups
AI Agents in PPM Express are divided into three groups, each serving a specific purpose and working slightly differently. Identification agents provide proactive suggestions within the Project sections, while Quality Insights and Insights agents monitor project data and post results into the PPM Insights project section cards, keeping you informed.
Identification Group:
These agents analyze project data and create suggested items directly in project sections (create new Risks, Issues, or Deliverables).
Projects cannot be subscribed to these agents; they can only be run manually by the user when needed.
For example, if the Risk Identification agent is run, suggested risks will appear in the Risks Project section (please refresh the page to see the suggestions).
Each suggested item (risk in our example) can be accepted, rejected, or edited. The edit panel allows users to review and change item details before accepting or rejecting the suggestion.
Each suggested item includes a description, a due date, and other relevant fields depending on the entity type (Risks, Issues, or Deliverables).
When you open a suggested item for editing, you’ll also find the Suggested Reason information. It explains why the AI Agent created that particular suggestion, helping you understand the logic behind the recommendation.
After you approve a suggested item, it is added to the main project section as a regular item, carrying over all associated data. Until approved, suggested items are visible only in their dedicated area and are not counted or reflected on the PPM Insights page or in generated PPM Insights cards.
Quality Insights Group:
These agents help maintain data accuracy by identifying missing or incomplete information in project section fields.
When subscribed, they run automatically on schedule or whenever the Regenerate button is clicked in the PPM Insights section.
For example, if you launch the Project Quality Insights agent, a card will appear on the PPM Insights AI Project section, showing a list of missing project details.
If you click the card, you can create an Action Item directly from it.
Insights Group:
These agents focus on project timelines and status, generating cards that show items due today, this week, or overdue.
If you click the card, you can create an Action Item directly from it.
Like Quality Insights agents, they can run automatically by schedule or manually via the Regenerate button.
The PPM Insights section displays cards created both by AI Agents and by the PPM Insights AI section. To identify which cards were generated by AI Agents, click the Info button and check the Created By field.
For more details about the groups and each AI Agent, please refer to the "Overview of AI Agent Groups and Their Agents" article.
Permissions
Users with Edit permission for a project can:
- run agents,
- subscribe the project to agents, and
- regenerate data.