AI Readiness is Not Enough: Towards Purpose-led AI Governance in Projects

AI readiness is increasingly treated as a central condition for successful AI deployment in projects, an emphasis that can privilege capability, adoption, and performance while leaving questions of purpose largely unaddressed. Drawing on Industry 5.0 as a normative point of reference, the work redirects attention to the ends AI deployment is expected to serve within projects. The concept of dual bounded rationality is introduced to interpret the interaction of human and algorithmic judgement under conditions in which AI capability is uneven and often opaque to users. From this perspective, governing AI in projects appears not only as a matter of preparation and adoption, but also of orientation and value. A purpose-led perspective is therefore offered as a contribution to current debate in order to broaden understanding of project AI governance in which questions of purpose, judgement, and accountability become more explicit.