The Establishment of an AI Literacy Competency Model for Project Managers in the ICT Industry and Its Relationship to Project Performance

Despite AI’s significance as a major force behind societal and economic advancement, project managers (PMs) encounter substantial obstacles in its application due to a lack of information, expertise, and experience. This study addresses this gap by identifying PM-specific AI literacy competencies, empirically verifying their impact on project performance, and comparing outcomes between ICT and non-ICT industries. An AI literacy competency model for PMs (4 dimensions, 16 sub-competencies) was established through expert surveys and interviews. Structural equation modeling, including confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group analysis, was then applied to responses from 512 PMs with AI literacy competency as the independent variable and project performance (8 dimensions) as the dependent variable. Key findings revealed that the four AI literacy competency dimensions (AI Knowledge, AI Evaluation, AI Usage, AI Ethics) generally positively influenced most dimensions of project performance. However, AI Usage had no significant impact on ‘measurement performance,’ nor did AI Ethics have a significant impact on ‘project work performance.’ Critically, AI literacy’s influence on project performance was stronger in the ICT industry, consistent with existing research. These results underscore the necessity for enhanced corporate AI training, modular AI literacy enhancement programs, standardized assessment tools, and policy support to enhance PMs’ AI literacy competency.