Let the project manager agent in Planner help you with your project
Datum: 2026-03-10 09:23
Let’s say you’ve been put in charge of a major change in the organization you work in. It might be that you need to develop something new, implement something, or carry out something extensive.
You haven’t done it before, and it’s not obvious how to proceed. Perhaps you don’t have a clear person to ask who can guide you. In the past, you would’ve been entirely on your own, but for some time now, this has been a typical situation where you turn to an AI chat for suggestions on how to plan it all.
For you who prefer listening to reading, this post is also available as an episode of the ""Done!"" podcast:
A step up from a chat
If you use the Planner app in Microsoft 365, you can now get even more hands-on help from the fairly new agent called Project Manager. It can even perform some of your tasks for you! I’ve tested it, and in my view, it looks promising.
Do this
- In Planner, create a new plan. Choose the option “Plan with Project Manager” where you can select templates to build the plan from.
- In the chat you get access to, describe what the plan is about and ask Project Manager to define which phases and activities should ideally be included in that type of plan.
- The agent now creates a plan with four columns:
- All incomplete tasks
- Assign to Project Manager
- Needs your input
- Ready for review
- It also creates a long list of clearly described activities that such a plan should ideally contain and places them in the “All incomplete tasks” column. The agent also suggests a clearly defined goal to link to each activity.
- You can now add several of your own columns to better distribute the activities.
- You can also work with the activities in the usual way, just as if you had created them yourself, but when you drag an activity to the “Assign to Project Manager” column, the agent starts working on it instead.
- If your input is needed, the activity is moved after a while to “Needs your input.” There, you can give the agent the answers it needs to proceed.
- When the agent is finished, the activity is moved to the “Ready for review” column, where you have a chance to review what the Project Manager agent has come up with.
- Continue working with the plan and get help from the agent whenever you feel like it or need it. Before long, you (and the plan) will be done!
An extra hand
If you use the Project Manager agent, you get help both with getting started on a big task you’re responsible for and with actually completing some of the activities in it. The agent becomes like an extra member of the workgroup who works quickly and helpfully, although it’s admittedly not as personal, genuine, and human as a colleague would be.
If you have access to the Project Manager agent, it’s well worth trying, if you ask me. There are more powerful and advanced agents than this one, but this agent works in an environment you already use and where all data security concerns have been taken into account.
How about you?
Have you tested the Project Manager agent in Planner? What kind of plan was it, if so? Write to me and tell me, because I’d love to hear!
(Another tip for those of you working in Microsoft 365. Try talking to Copilot as your assistant!)
You can get more!
If you want more tips on how to create good structure at work, there are many ways to get that from me - in podcasts, videos, books, talks and other formats.
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