# PMI Certified Professional in Managing AI (PMI-CPMAI) PMI Certified Professional in Managing AI (PMI-CPMAI) is the [[Project Management Institute (PMI)]] certification for people who run [[Artificial Intelligence (AI)|AI]] projects. It's built on the CPMAI methodology, which comes from Cognilytica. PMI acquired Cognilytica in September 2024 and launched PMI-CPMAI on 30 September 2025, replacing Cognilytica's own CPMAI v7 certification. ## The CPMAI methodology CPMAI is a vendor-neutral, data-centric and iterative (agile) approach to running AI projects. Its starting point is that AI projects are data projects. According to Cognilytica, most AI projects fail because of data problems or because they don't fit a real business need, rather than because of the technology itself. That's why the method pushes teams to "think big, start small, iterate often". The methodology is derived from CRISP-DM (Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining), like [[CRISP-ML(Q)]]. CPMAI is aimed at project managers, while CRISP-ML(Q) stays close to the engineering work. CPMAI has six phases, numbered I to VI: 1. Business Understanding 2. Data Understanding 3. Data Preparation 4. Model Development 5. Model Evaluation 6. Model Operationalization Three of the six phases deal with the business need and the data before any model gets built. The method also uses Cognilytica's "seven patterns of AI": - Recognition - Conversational and human interaction - Predictive analytics - Hyperpersonalization - Autonomous systems - Patterns and anomalies - Goal-driven systems ## The certification > [!warning] Verify these details > The PMI page sits behind Cloudflare, so the exam and fee details below come from third-party exam guides. Check them on PMI's page before relying on them. - Eligibility: you must complete the PMI-CPMAI Exam Prep Course (about 21 hours). No prior project management or AI experience is required (unlike the PMP) - Format: 120 questions (100 scored, plus 20 unscored pretest questions) in 160 minutes - Delivery: Pearson VUE, at a test center or online - Scoring: pass/fail - Weighting: Domain II (Identify Business Needs and Solutions) and Domain III (Identify Data Needs) weigh 26% each, so 52% of the exam is about business needs and data - Cost: about USD 699 for PMI members and USD 899 for non-members, for the course and exam bundle - Renewal: 30 PDUs (Professional Development Units) every 3 years ## References - https://www.pmi.org/certifications/ai-project-management-cpmai ## Related - [[Project Management Institute (PMI)]] - [[Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)]] - [[CRISP-ML(Q)]] - [[Machine Learning Project Workflow]] - [[How to choose an AI project]] - [[AI Pitfalls to avoid]] - [[AI Implementation Roadmap]] - [[MLOps]] - [[Project Management (MoC)]] - [[AI (MoC)]] - [[Data (MoC)]]