What role should AI play in a project?The most fitting one, in my view, is the role taken by Gandalf, the wizard from The Lord of the Rings.And if you've never seen the films, you don't deserve to read this article. Joking (but not entirely).
Let's imagine the team as members of the Fellowship of the Ring and the project as the journey towards Mordor.
Yes, you guessed it, this is going to be a bit of a nerdy article.
Now let's ask: what character should AI play?Right, I wrote it at the start, but let's work through the reasoning.
The operational team, in this story, are the Hobbits.They are the ones who get their hands dirty, take on the hard work, make mistakes, and get back up. They carry the responsibility of the mission on their own legs — no one can do it for them.
The Project Manager I see more as Aragorn.A clear-headed Ranger who doesn't need to dominate in order to command authority, always available to the team.Aragorn holds the direction when there is confusion, protects when external pressures arrive, acts as a shield when the team risks falling apart.A PM who doesn't “do the things” but removes the obstacles so that things can happen.
So, why should AI be Gandalf?Gandalf is a peculiar character.Sometimes he disappears because his task is not to substitute for the journey. A sage who doesn't point to the solution but to possible paths, and accepts taking wrong roads when the group decides.AI in a project should become neither the one that does things for the team nor the one that guides and resolves everything.It is the one that steps in at the moments the group needs it — when speed, inspiration and order are required. When you need to see options no one is seeing, when you need an outside perspective that clears the noise from your head.
This is the difference between using AI as an “output generator” and using it as a “lucidity amplifier”. If we use it as an output generator, something very common happens: very beautiful and useless documents. Because stuff produced but not understood and shared.If instead we use it as a lucidity amplifier, AI becomes truly powerful because its value is not “knowing the answers” but helping us ask the right questions, consider what we might forget, verify errors. Putting ourselves to the test, in short.
To put it plainly: Aragorn and the Fellowship use Gandalf intentionally.Not a “copilot” that steers alongside us (I’ve never liked how Microsoft decided to name “Copilot”) but a member of the Fellowship like the others, with a precise role and expectations.
And then one fundamental thing: it lets the team make mistakes more safely, because Gandalf doesn’t eliminate the error but ensures the error doesn’t become a tragedy. A “guardrail”, not a steering wheel.
Also beware, because AI is very good at making us appear competent, and this is dangerous when the team starts delegating thought.
And how are you using AI?
