Building the AI Backbone: Scaling Data Center Delivery | PMI Global Summit 2026 Panel

Data centers are among the most complex projects being built today. In this panel at PMI Global Summit 2026 (Detroit, 22 October 2026), five project leaders follow one data center from investment to operations: portfolio decisions, design for speed, construction reality, quality and readiness, and AI-ready governance. Panel Dr. Harri Emari, Moderator, QualityPMO: linkedin.com/in/hemari Bruno Freitas, Portfolio & Value: linkedin.com/in/brunocelsofreitas Fabricio Costa, Design Engineering: linkedin.com/in/fabriciorcc Sarah Rodovalho, Construction & Delivery: linkedin.com/in/sarahrodovalho Hussain Bandukwala, AI & Transformation: linkedin.com/in/hussainbandukwala The views expressed are the speakers' own and do not necessarily reflect those of their employers or clients. Sarah and Fabricio are members of the AI & PM Study and Research Hub (Núcleo IA & GP); they spoke in their own professional capacity, not on behalf of the Hub. Recorded from the audience by Vitor Maia Rodovalho. About two minutes, at the point marked in the video, were not recorded. Captions: English, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and introductions 07:21 Why PMI-CP matters for mission-critical delivery 09:27 What is a data center? (Sarah Rodovalho) 13:14 Mission-critical quality 14:43 How our disciplines connect (Fabricio Costa) 16:25 The flywheel: tracking decisions 18:56 Portfolio: investing and prioritizing (Bruno Freitas) 24:06 Community of practice 25:07 From portfolio planning to execution 30:16 Risk breakdown and requirements 31:50 Designing for speed: standard design, flexible where it matters 36:27 Construction reality on site (Sarah Rodovalho) 40:42 How to scale data center delivery (Fabricio Costa) 43:03 Governance first, then AI (Hussain Bandukwala) 48:52 Q&A: will a data center be obsolete before it is done? 53:39 Q&A: power and AI rack density 57:24 Closing #PMIGlobalSummit #DataCenters #ProjectManagement