PMI’s Infinity AI Gets the Basics of Team Development Alarmingly and Repeatedly Wrong

BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com

pmi-infinity-ai-gets-the-basics-of-team-development-alarmingly-and-repeatedly-wrong---by-scott-m-graffius---v250617-2-lwres



If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear in the Post-Publication Notes section.

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

Introduction

When an artificial intelligence product is released under the banner of the Project Management Institute (PMI)—a globally recognized authority on project management—it carries the weight of authority. PMI’s Infinity™ 2.0, marketed as an AI assistant to support professionals, should at least meet the accuracy of the PMI’s materials, especially on core topics such as team development.

Unfortunately, it does not.

This article reports how PMI Infinity performed when asked a basic question about a foundational concept in project management: the phases of team development (also known as the stages of team development, team dynamics, group dynamics, etc.). The result is a case study in misstatement, backpedaling, and conceptual fuzziness that would be unacceptable in a project management 101 course—let alone from a product designed to represent the PMI.

The Context: Team Development is Not Optional in Project Management

Bruce Tuckman’s 1965 model of team development—comprised of forming, storming, norming, and performing—was expanded in 1977 with colleague Mary Ann Jensen to include adjourning. These five phases are a well-established staple in organizational behavior, leadership studies, and—critically—project management.

PMI itself integrates Tuckman’s model into its materials. Project teams do not operate in a vacuum. Understanding how they form, clash, align, deliver, and disband is essential to project success. The project manager’s job is to navigate that lifecycle.

Failure in this area by PMI Infinity AI is not a minor glitch. It’s a foundational error, and it happened not just once but across multiple responses.

The Timeline of Errors: A Blow-by-Blow Breakdown

Here’s how PMI's Infinity AI handled the queries about team development, step by step (the detailed transcript is available in
text format and screen shot format):

1. Omission of Adjourning in the Initial Answer

In the first response, PMI Infinity lists:

  • Forming,
  • Storming,
  • Norming, and
  • Performing.

That’s it.

Adjourning—the critical fifth stage added in 1977—is not on the list. This is a fundamental factual error. Tuckman and Jensen's 1977 update has been in existence for 48 years. The AI’s failure to include it is inexcusable.

2. “Adjourning/Reforming” is a Fabricated Concept

Later, the AI refers to the last phase as “Adjourning/Reforming.”

This hybrid phrase does not originate from Tuckman or Tuckman/Jensen. It’s not a dual label. Adjourning is the correct term, and it has a specific meaning: the disbanding of the team. While teams can regroup in the future, Tuckman never inserted “reforming” as a part of the developmental progression.

This error is especially egregious because it fabricates terminology under the guise of authority. PMI Infinity is not just being sloppy—it’s making things up.

3. Misleading Framing of Adjourning

Even when the AI agrees with its error, corrects itself, and then uses the proper term (adjourning), it frames the phase as:

“... acknowledging the lifecycle of a team beyond the completion of a project.”

This phrasing is incomplete and misleading. It suggests that adjourning only occurs when a project is completed, ignoring the fact that teams may otherwise adjourn due to:

  • Project cancellation,
  • Restructuring,
  • Budget cuts,
  • Organizational shifts, or
  • Other related situations.

Reducing adjourning to “after completion” is not just simplistic—it’s incorrect. In real-world project management, teams disband for many reasons. This is not nuance; it’s the reality of the profession.

4. Only After Multiple Prompts Does the AI Yield an Accurate Answer

The AI repeatedly ignored facts and fabricated facts. Such AI errors are termed "hallucinations." Only because the user was an expert on the subject matter, there was several rounds of feedback and corrections.

An AI that needs to be corrected repeatedly, with escalating specificity, to get a basic, textbook-level answer right is not ready for professional use.

Why This Matters: The Cost of Getting It Wrong

The team development model is part of the behavioral bedrock of leadership, communication, and team performance. If PMI Infinity can’t reliably explain the phases of team development:

  • How can it be trusted to assist professionals under deadline pressure?
  • How will it guide students or others trying to build foundational knowledge?
  • What confidence can any user have that more complex questions will yield credible results?

This is a serious, material issue. Misinformation at the foundational level breeds misunderstanding and downstream failure.

Final Scorecard

On a scale of 1-10 (where 10 is best), here's the rating of the performance of PMI's Infinity AI tool:

  • Factual Accuracy: 1/10
  • Alignment with PMI Materials: 1/10
  • Terminological Precision: 1/10
  • Responsiveness to Correction: 5/10
  • Professional Use Readiness: 1/10
  • Overall Score: 1/10

Conclusion: A Wake-Up Call for PMI and Users of PMI's Infinity AI

PMI Infinity AI failed to provide accurate, complete, and credible information on one of the most fundamental topics in project management. This should concern every professional who uses the tool.

Team development is not a minor topic. It is a core competency area covered in PMI publications and lived daily by project managers worldwide. For PMI’s AI to fumble this topic so spectacularly and repeatedly is not just ironic—it’s alarming.

Until significant improvements are made, PMI Infinity AI should only be used with extreme caution—and only with the user independently verifying information from reliable sources. When AI incorporates facts, it can be a powerful tool. When AI disregards facts or fabricates facts, it’s a threat. Alarmingly, PMI Infinity AI has shown that it repeatedly disregarded facts and fabricated facts.

pmi-infinity-ai-gets-the-basics-of-team-development-alarmingly-and-repeatedly-wrong---by-scott-m-graffius---v250617-2-sq-2-lwres

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

More

Continue reading for:

  • About the PMI Infinity AI Tool,
  • About the PMI,
  • Additional Articles,
  • About Scott M. Graffius,
  • How to Cite This Article,
  • and more.

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

About the PMI Infinity AI Tool

On January 22, 2024, the Project Management Institute (PMI)
announced the launch of PMI Infinity™, marketed as an AI-powered assistant designed for project professionals. It claims to offer smart navigation through "over 14,000 vetted project‑management resources."

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

About the PMI

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is a globally recognized professional organization dedicated to advancing the practice, science, and profession of project management. Founded in 1969, it provides resources, certifications, and networking opportunities to empower professionals in managing projects effectively across various industries. Its flagship certifications, such as the Project Management Professional (PMP), are widely respected and sought after for demonstrating expertise in project leadership. Through its standards, publications, and global community, PMI fosters best practices and drives innovation in project, program, and portfolio management. Visit
https://www.pmi.org to learn more.

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

Additional Articles

You may also be interested in these relatively recent articles on Agile, AI, and Project Management:


black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

About Scott M. Graffius

scott_m_graffius_-_blue_-_1000x1000_-lwres

Scott M. Graffius is an AI, Agile, and Project Management/PMO leader, researcher, author, and speaker. Along the way, he spearheaded initiatives that have generated over $2.3 billion in impact for organizations across tech, entertainment, finance, healthcare, and beyond. The following sections provide additional information on his experience, contributions, and influence.

Experience

Graffius heads the professional services firm Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, along with its subsidiary Exceptional Agility. These consultancies offer strategic and tactical advisory, training, embedded expertise, and consulting services to the public, private, and government sectors. They help organizations enhance their capabilities and results in agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership, supporting innovation and driving competitive advantage. The consultancies confidently back services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.

Graffius is a former VP of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more.

He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.

Award-Winning Author

Graffius has authored three books.


International Public Speaker

Organizations worldwide engage Graffius to present on tech (including AI), Agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership. He crafts and delivers unique and compelling talks and workshops. To date,
Graffius has conducted 94 sessions across 25 countries. Select examples of events include Agile Trends Gov, BSides (Newcastle Upon Tyne), Conf42 Quantum Computing, DevDays Europe, DevOps Institute, DevOpsDays (Geneva), Frug’Agile, IEEE, Microsoft, Scottish Summit, Scrum Alliance RSG (Nepal), Techstars, and W Love Games International Video Game Development Conference (Helsinki), and more.

With an average rating of 4.81 (on a scale of 1-5), sessions are highly valued.

The speaker engagement request form is
here.

Thought Leadership and Influence

Prominent businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities have showcased Graffius and his contributions—spanning his books, talks, workshops, and beyond. Select examples include:

  • Adobe,
  • American Management Association,
  • Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute,
  • Bayer,
  • BMC Software,
  • Boston University,
  • Broadcom,
  • Cisco,
  • Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts - Germany,
  • Computer Weekly,
  • Constructor University - Germany,
  • Data Governance Success,
  • Deimos Aerospace,
  • DevOps Institute,
  • Dropbox,
  • EU's European Commission,
  • Ford Motor Company,
  • Gartner,
  • GoDaddy,
  • Harvard Medical School,
  • Hasso Plattner Institute - Germany,
  • IEEE,
  • Innovation Project Management,
  • Johns Hopkins University,
  • Journal of Neurosurgery,
  • Lam Research (Semiconductors),
  • Leadership Worthy,
  • Life Sciences Trainers and Educators Network,
  • London South Bank University,
  • Microsoft,
  • NASSCOM,
  • National Academy of Sciences,
  • New Zealand Government,
  • Oracle,
  • Pinterest Inc.,
  • Project Management Institute,
  • Mary Raum (Professor of National Security Affairs, United States Naval War College),
  • SANS Institute,
  • SBG Neumark - Germany,
  • Singapore Institute of Technology,
  • Torrens University - Australia,
  • TBS Switzerland,
  • Tufts University,
  • UC San Diego,
  • UK Sports Institute,
  • University of Galway - Ireland,
  • US Department of Energy,
  • US National Park Service,
  • US Soccer,
  • US Tennis Association,
  • Verizon,
  • Wrike,
  • Yale University,
  • and many others.

Graffius has played a key role in the Project Management Institute (PMI) in developing professional standards. He was a member of multiple teams that authored, reviewed, and produced:

  • Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition.
  • A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition.
  • The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition.
  • The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition.

Additional details are here.

He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI’s Congress. Beyond the PMI, Graffius also served as a member of the review team for two of the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gatherings.

Acclaimed Authority on Teamwork Tradecraft

scott-m-graffius-phases-of-team-development-2025-edition

Graffius is a renowned authority on teamwork tradecraft. Informed by the research of Bruce W. Tuckman and Mary Ann C. Jensen, over 100 subsequent studies, and Graffius' first-hand professional experience with, and analysis of, team leadership and performance, Graffius created his 'Phases of Team Development' as a unique perspective and visual conveying the five phases of team development. First introduced in 2008 and periodically updated, his work provides a diagnostic and strategic guide for navigating team dynamics. It provides actionable insights for leaders across industries to develop high-performance teams. Its adoption by esteemed organizations such as Yale University, IEEE, Cisco, Microsoft, Ford, Oracle, Broadcom, the U.S. National Park Service, and the Journal of Neurosurgery, among others, highlights its utility and value, solidifying its status as an indispensable resource for elevating team performance and driving organizational excellence.

The 2025 edition of Graffius' "Phases of Team Development" intellectual property is here.

Expert on Temporal Dynamics on Social Media Platforms

scott-m-graffius-lifespan-halflife-of-social-media-posts-2025-edition

Graffius is also an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms. His 'Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts' research—first published in 2018 and updated annually—delivers a precise quantitative analysis of post longevity across digital platforms, utilizing advanced statistical techniques to determine mean half-life with precision. It establishes a solid empirical base, effectively highlighting the ephemeral nature of content within social media ecosystems. Referenced and applied by leading entities such as the Center for Direct Marketing, Fast Company, GoDaddy, Pinterest Inc., and PNAS, among others, his research exemplifies methodological rigor and sustained significance in the field of digital informatics.

The 2025 edition of Graffius "Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts" research is here.

Education and Professional Certifications

Graffius has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications:

  • Certified SAFe 6 Agilist (SA),
  • Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM),
  • Certified Scrum Professional - Product Owner (CSP-PO),
  • Certified ScrumMaster (CSM),
  • Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO),
  • Project Management Professional (PMP),
  • Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and
  • IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL).

He is an active member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Advancing AI, Agile, and Project/PMO Management

Scott M. Graffius continues to advance the fields of AI, Agile, and Project/PMO Management through his leadership, research, writing, and real-world impact. Businesses and other organizations leverage Graffius’ insights to drive their success.

Thought Leader | Public Speaker | Agile Protocol Book | Agile Scrum Book | Agile Transformation Book | Blog | Photo | X | LinkedIn | Email

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

pinterest-inc-references-scott-m-graffius0027-research---v1-3---lwres

cisco-features-scott-m.-graffius0027-0027phases-of-team-development0027-work---rectange---lwres

ieee-xplore-publication-featured-scott-m-graffius-phases-of-team-development-work---rev-sept-19-2024---hires

uc-san-diego-features-scott-m-graffius-intellectual-property-on-teamwork---geisel---creative-24101007---lwres

johns-hopkins-university-features-work-of-scott-m-graffius---v24080107---tw---lwres

semiconductor-manufacturing-firm-lam-research-features-scott-m-graffius2019-2018phases-of-team-development2019-intellectual-property---tw-sz-format---lwres

bayer-licensed-ip-of-agile-expert-scott-m-graffius---agilescrumguide_com---lwres

award-winning-agile-scrum-book-by-scott-m-graffius-v24122207lwres

scott_m_graffius_agile_transformation_sq_lr_1000x1000

25-unforgettable-gifts-from-usd-149-to-2640000---scottgraffius-com---lwres

scottgraffius-youtube---v25032307-lwres

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

Feature-focused

Sign up for Miro—it's free!

(Want more features? You can always upgrade to a paid plan.)

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

scott_m_graffius_-_blog_spacer_-_v23111107_-_cite

How to Cite This Article


Graffius, Scott M. (2025, June 17).
PMI’s Infinity AI Gets the Basics of Team Development Alarmingly and Repeatedly Wrong. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/pmi-infinity-ai-gets-the-basics-of-team-development-alarmingly-and-repeatedly-wrong---by-scott-m-graffius.html.

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

scott_m_graffius_-_blog_spacer_-_v23111107_-_x---rev-24101207---doi----lwres

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)


DOI: (coming soon)


black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

scott_m_graffius_-_blog_spacer_-_v23111107_-_x---rev-24101207---content-acknowledgements---lwres

Content Acknowledgements

This article includes brief excerpts from the Project Management Institute (PMI), attributed and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis.

PMI and PMI Infinity names, marks, and content are the property of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

spacer-post-publication-notes-1000pxw

Post-Publication Notes

If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.

Update on 18 June 2025

The page for PMI's Infinity AI tool (https://infinity.pmi.org/chat) has a "Provide Feedback" mechanism. The feedback form has three parts: satisfaction level, expectations, and suggested improvements. Graffius provided feedback to the PMI. His responses follow:

  • Satisfaction: Graffius selected: Very Unsatisfied.
  • Expectations: Graffius wrote: "At a minimum, PMI's AI should get basic project management information right. However, it got simple info on team development repeatedly wrong. See: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/pmi-infinity-ai-gets-the-basics-of-team-development-alarmingly-and-repeatedly-wrong---by-scott-m-graffius.html"
  • Suggested improvements: Graffius wrote: "Because PMI's Infinity AI tool has not yet delivered correct information on basic project management matters, fixing that shocking problem should be the immediate objective."

And here's a screen shot.

screenshot-250618-a

Further updates, if any, will appear here.

Update on 25 June 2025

See the related story,
The “Pants-on-Fire Index for AI”.

Update on 8 July 2025

See the related story,
AI Showcase Showdown: Ranking AI Accuracy on Project Management Basics.

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Blog_Spacer_-_v23111107_-_X - rev 25062907 - hashtags - lwres

Top 5 Hashtags

#AI
#ArtificialIntelligence
#PMI
#PMIInfinity
#PMIAI

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

scott_m_graffius_-_blog_spacer_-_v23111107_-_x---rev-24101207---copyright---lwres

Copyright

Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.

Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.






custom - back to main page of blog