The Cognitive Project Management for AI (CPMAI) is a vendor-neutral, data-centric, AI-specific, iterative methodology for running and managing AI, ML, and cognitive technology projects. The Cognitive Project Management for AI (CPMAI) methodology is the number one way to make every AI Project a success.  

CPMAI provides a methodology / framework for running and managing AI projects combined with foundational education to understand all the components of AI systems, paired with a certification that shows to others that you know how to run and manage AI projects. 

Implementing AI successfully is challenging. Traditional development methods, such as those used for standard software development, struggle with the unique demands of AI projects. Unlike traditional software, AI relies heavily on data, not just code, for learning and development.   

Therefore, an evolved approach to AI-centric project management is needed, one that prioritizes data and the specific requirements of AI projects. CPMAI combines the latest, best practices from iterative project management while focusing on the data-driven and highly probabilistic nature of AI. 

The CPMAI Certification is focused on providing project management methodology for running AI, machine learning, and advanced data projects. Other certifications are focused on vendor- or technology-specific low-level development or data science needs or are more generally focused on project management skills independent of their application, or they are focused on how to apply AI to traditional project management.   

CPMAI is not like those training and certifications. Instead, CPMAI is focused on providing the skills and framework necessary to run and manage today’s critical AI-focused projects. It’s not about learning today’s tools that will be obsolete tomorrow. It’s about learning proven approaches to run and manage AI projects, as they continue to evolve. CPMAI is valid yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The other certifications will be here today and gone tomorrow as the technologies and practices continue to change.   

Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with having a vendor-specific certification for a cloud platform or development tool, and nothing wrong with having a certification to learn how to apply AI tools or data science skills. Also, there’s nothing wrong with having a Certification focused on broadly applicable project management skills such as a PMP or Agile certifications. In fact, if you have any of these certifications, you’ll find even more value in the CPMAI Certification. Many of our CPMAI Certified community have certifications including PMP, Lean Six Sigma (LSS), Scaled Agile SAFe, ITIL certifications and a wide range of technical and project-specific certifications from vendors such as Coursera, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, IBM, and others.  

CPMAI Certification fills in the gaps of these technology-specific or project management-general certifications. CPMAI provides the specific best practices methodologies you need to run AI and advanced data projects with confidence in their success, and the certification earned is a signal to employers, recruiters, clients, and colleagues that you have the specific skills needed to run AI and data projects with success, regardless of the tools or technology used. There are no credible alternatives to the vendor-neutral, best practices-based, CRISP-DM and Agile foundation of the CPMAI certification for AI and data project management methodology. 

The CPMAI certification is a sign to current and potential employers that you have the right project management skills needed to successfully run and manage AI, ML, and advanced analytics projects. Getting certified augments, enhances, and extends any experience you might have in project management or AI. Or, if you lack that experience, it shows employers that you have gone through best practices methodology that will be instantly applicable to current or future AI projects.  

Absolutely! Employers are looking for individuals to run AI projects that have the project management and AI skills necessary to make an impact on day one of their efforts. CPMAI certification has directly helped individuals participate in major AI initiatives and get employed at organizations including Shell, AstraZeneca, Coca-Cola, consulting and contracting firms such as Deloitte, Maximus, and government agencies and organizations across the world.  

The CPMAI Certification is primarily for those in project or product management, IT, business management, and executive roles that are currently or will be involved in advanced data and AI projects. CPMAI has certified many people in roles such as project management, compliance, legal, risk, procurement, business strategy, analytics, product management, engineering, and many non-IT roles and titles. 

The CPMAI methodology was developed in 2017 based on real-world needs of delivering successful AI solutions for a number of large technology firms, financial institutions, Fortune 1000 firms, and government agencies. Cognilytica has been selling and delivering CPMAI training and certification since 2018. Cognilytica was acquired by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in September 2024, and since then CPMAI is offered as a core PMI Specialized Certification, alongside other PMI certifications.

Cognilytica CPMAI v7 is offered as a fully self-paced, online training and certification, with the certification exam completed online by the trainee as the last module of the training course.  Courses are structured as self-paced online instruction plus an additional set of exercise questions focused on learning understanding and CPMAI workbook “checkpoints” that you can use to apply what you learned to your own project. At the end of each course, enrollees complete a version-specific timed, online exam in order to earn the CPMAI certification specific to the version enrolled in. 

Cognilytica CPMAI enrollment is currently available on the Cognilytica Courses website at https://courses.cognilytica.com/.

Training enrollees who have already purchased access to Cognilytica training and certification can access their courses at https://courses.cognilytica.com/my-account/ .

Cognilytica currently does not offer any Live Instructor, In-Person, or Instructor-Led Training (ILT) or certification options at this time.  However, as part of PMI, we are exploring delivery of such solutions through partners, so please reach out to us at [email protected] if you are interested.

Cognilytica sells and delivers on the Cognilytica LMS and site the following versions of CPMAI, each sold as standalone training and certifications:  

• Cognilytica CPMAI v7: The latest CPMAI Methodology Training & Certification! The World’s Most Popular AI & ML Project Management methodology, CPMAI is the industry’s best practice methodology for running successful AI & ML projects. Cognilytica’s CPMAI training and certification prepares you to succeed with your AI & ML efforts, whether you’re just beginning or are well down the road with implementation.  

• Cognilytica CPMAI+ PLUS v7: Enhanced with training & certification on Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and Big Data & Data Science Fundamentals Cognilytica’s CPMAI training and certification prepares you to succeed with your AI & ML efforts, whether you’re just beginning or are well down the road with implementation.  

• Cognilytica CPMAI+E v7: The Most Comprehensive, latest CPMAI Methodology Training & Certification!  Enhances the CPMAI+ PLUS training and certification with the Trustworthy AI Framework and details and methods for implementing ethical & responsible AI. Cognilytica’s CPMAI training and certification prepares you to succeed with your AI & ML efforts, whether you’re just beginning or are well down the road with implementation.  

CPMAI is not a technical course and does not require any technical knowledge or prerequisites. We have had many non-technical people successfully complete the course and get certified! No prior knowledge or experience in AI or advanced data is needed. Knowledge of project management and IT is helpful, but not a prerequisite.    

All the levels are suitable for beginners. Each CPMAI training course covers an increasing scope and quantity of training materials. CPMAI v7 methodology is taught and covered in all three levels. CPMAI+ PLUS adds additional content and material to CPMAI v7 focused on automation, data science, and big data. CPMAI+E adds even more material on top of CPMAI+ PLUS focused on trustworthy and ethical AI. The level you choose all depends on how much material you’re interested in and what level of certification you’d like.  

The Cognilytica CPMAI Training and Certification doesn’t require any prior knowledge or experience on AI or advanced data. Each Cognilytica CPMAI training and certification course starts with a foundation of AI, foundation of data science, and each subsequent module explains the concepts at the level of detail needed to understand how to manage AI projects from the project manager’s perspective, rather than from the low-level implementation perspective.  

The CPMAI Training and Certification fee is all-inclusive, providing all necessary online, self-paced learning, supporting materials including workbook and training materials, self-graded exercises, and online certification exam. Each certification course includes a timed, online certification exam which allows up to 2 exam retakes.  

Each Cognilytica CPMAI Training & certification course has a different number of total hours which combines video topic lesson hours, exercises, workbook application, and a final certification exam.  

Details as follows:  

• Cognilytica CPMAI v7: 20 lessons – 22 hours of training content  

• Cognilytica CPMAI+ PLUS v7: 28 lessons – 36 hours of training content  

• Cognilytica CPMAI+E v7: 35 lessons – 48 hours of training content 
  

Enrollees can complete any of these levels of self-paced training and certification in as little as one week or as much as 3 months (90 days).  

Cognilytica CPMAI training and certification on the Cognilytica LMS systems in available in English only, and no other languages are available at the moment.

Those currently enrolled in a Cognilytica CPMAI course on the Cognilytica LMS can at any time upgrade to another level of CPMAI by paying the difference in the current price of the CPMAI level they wish to upgrade to and the amounts they paid when first enrolling. Trainees can upgrade from CPMAI v7 to CPMAI+ PLUS v7 or CPMAI+E v7 on the Cognilytica LMS. Trainees can also upgrade from CPMAI+ PLUS v7 to CPMAI+E v7. Those currently enrolled in a more comprehensive version of CPMAI are not able downgrade versions.  

It is important to note that trainees will need to restart their training courses when they upgrade as there are different learning topics and lessons in different orders in the various courses. 

The first step to Cognilytica CPMAI certification is completing Cognilytica CPMAI Training on the latest version of the CPMAI Certification curricula. Currently, only Cognilytica offers authorized CPMAI training. Training is offered as online, self-paced training with all exercises, exams, and workbook activities provided online.  

In addition to completing online self-paced learning material, trainees will be required to complete exercises that ascertain understanding of the material, and the completion of the workbook which ascertains ability to apply the material to current or conceptual projects. After the completion of all exercises and passing the Cognilytica CPMAI certification exam with a score of at least 70% (2 retry attempts provided), a PMI Cognilytica CPMAI Certification is granted for that CPMAI version. By using the online, self-paced Learning Management System (LMS), the certificate is provided automatically in electronic form.  

The Cognilytica CPMAI v7 certification exam offered by Cognilytica on the Cognilytica LMS is included and provided with the course enrollment. It is offered as an online, multiple-choice exam, that can be completed at your discretion, and on your computer at your location. The exam is focused more on application of CPMAI concepts than on basic understanding, so if you have a good understanding of the concepts, you should do just fine on the exam. The exam is open book, and you can use your notes or any other training materials. 

The Cognilytica CPMAI exam is not offered in a proctored exam environment, and the Cognilytica CPMAI exam is not available or offered on Pearson Vue.  

The following are the details of the certification exams depending on the Cognilytica CPMAI version:  

• Cognilytica CPMAI v7 Certification Exam: 90 Questions, 2 hour timed limit  

• Cognilytica CPMAI+ PLUS v7 Certification Exam: 110 Questions, 2.5 hour timed limit  

• Cognilytica CPMAI+E v7 Certification Exam: 120 Questions, 3 hour timed limit

For all exams, a minimum 70% correct answer rate is required for passing and successful completion.

Each certification course includes a timed, online certification exam with a required 70% pass rate. Cognilytica provides up to 2 exam retakes at no additional cost. If you need further retakes, please inquire with us at [email protected]. To date, Cognilytica has not had anyone require more than the two included retakes to pass the CPMAI certification exam.  

The Cognilytica CPMAI LMS Is available at https://courses.cognilytica.com.    

Trainees create their own account when they register and enroll for training at the link above. When trainees sign up for a CPMAI training & certification course, they will be prompted to create a username and password. This will provide access to the training content.  

To access any Cognilytica training and/or certification, trainees can visit https://courses.cognilytica.com/my-account/  to login and access course and certification content and materials.  

Access is not restricted to a single machine, so trainees can access training materials online from anywhere. 

Trainees have up to ninety (90) days to complete their Cognilytica CPMAI training and certification from the date of enrollment. Trainees have access to the Cognilytica CPMAI training materials during the ninety (90) day enrollment period, and for up to thirty (30) days after course completion. Extensions to access might be available on a request basis. Send inquiries for extension of access to Cognilytica CPMAI training materials to [email protected].   

Trainees may retain the downloadable training materials and workbook for your current and future projects as long as they are not publicly shared or posted online. Training videos are not available for download as they are embedded in the Cognilytica online Learning Management System (LMS).

Cognilytica is constantly keeping CPMAI training and certification materials and exercises up to date. CPMAI methodology is used today in major AI projects. 

Cognilytica’s CPMAI training and certification is all inclusive and self-contained, providing all the necessary training materials and doesn’t require any additional study materials. Cognilytica does not endorse, approve, or otherwise require any third-party study or training materials for CPMAI, other than the training materials included with the Cognilytica CPMAI training & certification.   

Cognilytica CPMAI training and certification does not require, involve, cover, or in any other way involve PMI’s PMBOK or any PMI study materials. 

The Cognitive Project Management for AI (CPMAI) training and certification provides the training and certification on the CPMAI methodology for running and managing AI projects. You do not need to have any prior Project Management training or certification to successfully complete the training and certification.  

Likewise, the CPMAI training and certification is focused entirely on managing and running AI projects and is not a general-purpose project management training and certification. The CPMAI certification does not grant any other project management certification, such as Project Management Professional (PMP) or CAPM. If you’re interested in general purpose project management training and certification, you should also take additional courses and pursue the necessary requirements to get a PMI CAPM or PMP certification, and/or PMI-ACP or PMI-DA certifications as relevant for your expertise, experience level, interest, and qualifications.  

The CPMAI training and certification only provides a CPMAI certification upon successful completion and does not provide any additional project management certification or endorsement. 

All Cognilytica-issued CPMAI certifications on the Cognilytica LMS and certifications provided by Cognilytica-delivered training and certification never expire and will continue to be valid without any ongoing maintenance or renewal requirements.  

There are no requirements for CEUs, PDUs, or other continuing education to maintain a valid certification for the Cognilytica  CPMAI version you are certified on as long as the certification was enrolled and completed on the Cognilytica LMS. Once granted, the Cognilytica CPMAI certification doesn’t expire for the Cognilytica CPMAI version that a trainee was certified on.  

Anyone who has completed their certification on the Cognilytica LMS or prior Cognilytica in-person training and granted a CPMAI certification will receive a PMI logo-branded Cognilytica CPMAI Credly badge and registration in PMI registry in addition to their Cognilytica CPMAI certificate and badge.  

PMI will migrate all Cognilytica CPMAI certification holders to PMI systems so that they can be granted Credly badges as well as the badges currently available on Cognilytica systems. We are expecting to complete the migration with updates on Credly badge availability in Q1 2025. 

Cognilytica CPMAI holders will receive either a CPMAI, CPMAI+ PLUS, or CPMAI+E Credly badge depending on their level of certification. 

Cognilytica CPMAI holders will be listed in the PMI Certification registry as having a CPMAI certification as well as any additional endorsements for +PLUS and +E holders. The details of the nature of PMI registry listing are still being worked out. Migration of all Cognilytica CPMAI certification holders including listing in the PMI registry is expected to be completed by end of Q1 2025. 

Starting in Q1 2025, PMI will offer CPMAI learning and certification on the PMI site and certification exams following PMI’s existing practices. Stay tuned for more news and details on this transition of CPMAI to PMI systems in Q1 2025. 

CPMAI enrollees who have started their course on the Cognilytica LMS will need to complete their course on the Cognilytica LMS, and will not be able to resume or restart the course on the PMI LMS system when that is live. Similarly, those who have enrolled in the Cognilytica LMS will complete their certification exam on the Cognilytica LMS system and will not be able to take the certification exam on the PMI systems or on Pearson Vue

Cognilytica offers the following group discounts for Cognilytica CPMAI enrollments on the Cognilytica systems:  

• Five (5) or more Cognilytica CPMAI enrollments: 10% discount  

• Ten (10) or more Cognilytica CPMAI enrollments: 15% discount  

• Twenty (20) or more Cognilytica CPMAI enrollments: 20% discount 
  

Discounts are applied when a single payment is made for all trainees enrolled as part of a group.  

To inquire about group discounts, send a message to [email protected] with details about the size of the group, level(s) of CPMAI certification, and method of requested payment.  

Cognilytica does not offer any student, government, academic, or educational discounts. However, trainees can enroll in the Cognilytica Intro to CPMAI course and complete the course. Upon course completion there’s a 10% discount coupon that’s provided.    

For US Federal Government employees, the CPMAI certification and training cost is under the US Government “Minimum Purchase Threshold (MPT)” and qualifies for training under SF-182 for individuals and groups, and as such would be reimbursable or directly payable by the government for current, full-time government employees. 

Individuals who are buying CPMAI training from Cognilytica can only make purchases online through the Cognilytica LMS and ecommerce system and make payment using a credit card.    

Businesses who are enrolling five or more users can make payments through a purchase order, with invoicing from PMI’s system, provided the customer qualifies for payment terms. Organizations that qualify for payment terms will be able to issue a purchase order with payment terms that allow them to pay upon receipt of invoice, with their group being enrolled at time purchase order is received and approved, and invoice sent to customer.   

Organizations that don’t qualify for purchase order terms can make payment upfront to enroll their group, but can make payment through check, wire, or other methods. Once payment is received, the group will be enrolled in the Cognilytica LMS.  

Cognilytica only accepts payment online via the payment providers accepted by Stripe as part of the Cognilytica LMS onboarding process.  

Cognilytica does not accept cash, check, offline payments, Paypal, wire payments, bank transfers, or other payment types at this time. 

All payments are made in US Dollars (USD).

Trainees are often able to get their current employer to cover CPMAI certification and training costs as part of their tuition reimbursement or continuing education benefits. Many organizations offer several thousand dollars a year in employee skilling and training benefits, and you can take advantage of that for your CPMAI certification and training fee. Find out if your current employer will reimburse or pay directly for professional certifications, such as they would for the PMI PMP certification, for example.  

For customers in the US or Canada, Cognilytica offers the Affirm payment option which allows individual customers to make payments over time for CPMAI training and certification offered on Cognilytica systems. Many of these payments over time can be made without interest if paid off in a short period of time. Otherwise, interest and fees may apply to longer pay-over-time periods.   

Cognilytica provides instant access to purchased CPMAI training and certification products on the Cognilytica LMS system once approved by Affirm.  

Cognilytica is not responsible or liable for support or issues with regards to the Affirm payment provider.   

Cognilytica does not offer any zone or local-pricing or variable pricing that is dependent on trainee location for any Cognilytica CPMAI course offered for purchase on Cognilytica website or on the Cognilytica LMS and systems.  

Cognilytica does not provide or include PMI membership with any Cognilytica CPMAI v7 training and certification enrollment. Cognilytica does not require any active PMI membership to enroll in Cognilytica CPMAI v7 training and certification.   

Cognilytica does not offer any discounts to current or former PMI members for Cognilytica CPMAI v7 training and certification.  

Cognilytica does not provide any refunds for CPMAI training and certification fees. Anyone who enrolls for Cognilytica CPMAI but is unable to use the training or certification before they have started the course, can reach out to Cognilytica support to transfer that enrollment to someone else.  

Currently, Cognilytica is not offering any partnership programs for Cognilytica CPMAI training and certification. This may change in the future as Cognilytica brings its CPMAI training and certification more in alignment with PMI certification and training offerings.  

Cognilytica is not an accredited academic institution. The training that is included with the Cognilytica CPMAI Certification is focused on providing necessary content to successfully complete the Cognilytica CPMAI v7 certification exam. Enrollees can potentially earn CEUs and PDUs offered by PMI and other project management certification organizations based on the training and certification time spent on Cognilytica CPMAI. 

Yes! The Cognitive Project Management for AI (CPMAI), CPMAI Plus (CPMAI+), and CPMAI Plus Ethics (CPMAI+E) certifications fall under PMI’s education category and certified trainees may be able to apply PDUs towards their PMP and other certification maintenance requirements. Many of CPMAI trainees have successfully gotten up to 39 hours of PDU credit towards PMI PMP maintenance and other certification goals. Learn more at https://www.cognilytica.com/earn-pdus-for-pmp-with-cpmai/   

Any customer care or support needs regarding Cognilytica CPMAI training and certification can be referred to [email protected].   

Currently, Cognilytica has a private CPMAI Certified Community LinkedIn Group where you can network, sharing, and interact with the community of those who have completed or are currently working through their CPMAI training and certification. Join us on our LinkedIn group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12831962/. Note that membership in the group is restricted to those enrolled or completed a paid CPMAI training and certification course. 

In the future, Cognilytica will be migrating this group to more official PMI communities. There will be more details in 2025, so stay tuned! 

PMI helpdesk isn’t yet able to support CPMAI until we move the Cognilytica training to the PMI systems. We’re aiming to get on those systems by Q1 2025. Please address any support or inquiries to [email protected].   

The Cognilytica CPMAI v7 content will be moving to the PMI systems in Q1 2025. In addition to moving the content, there will be a new, Pearson VUE certification exam. The CPMAI v7 certification will be the “base” certification and exam prep offered on PMI systems, and the +PLUS and +E components will be add-on enhancements to the CPMAI v7 certification.  Stay tuned for more details on that “transition” of CPMAI v7 content to PMI systems. 

Later in 2025, PMI will also announce an updated PMI-CPMAI “gold standard” certification that will separate the certification and learning components, and have updated and additional learning content.

In Q1 2025, Cognilytica CPMAI enrollees will have PMI accounts created for them so that they can receive Credly badges and be included in the PMI registry. Users who do not have a PMI account will have one created for them using the email they set up for their CPMAI enrollment. Users who already have a PMI account under their CPMAI email will have their CPMAI information linked to their existing account. Users currently enrolled in a Cognilytica CPMAI training and certification will not be enrolled in any PMI courses or certification exams, and will need to complete their training and certification on Cognilytica systems. 

Once CPMAI is available for purchase and enrollment on PMI systems, all purchases and course enrollments from that point will be made and delivered on PMI systems. Cognilytica will redirect any requests for new enrollment to PMI systems at that time. 

Anyone currently enrolled in Cognilytica CPMAI systems who have not completed their CPMAI courses or certification exam will have ninety (90) days from the date of their enrollment to complete their course and certification on Cognilytica systems. Those enrolled in the Cognilytica LMS system will need to complete their course and certification on the Cognilytica LMS and will not be able to resume or complete their training and certification on the PMI LMS system.  

Cognilytica will keep its existing Cognilytica LMS up and available so that those who are currently enrolled in CPMAI training and certification on the Cognilytica LMS system, but have not completed the course or certification will be able to complete the course and certification within their ninety (90) day access period.