Smarter Risk Planning with AI: What’s New in Acumen 8.11

Project teams today face mounting complexity in identifying, modeling, and mitigating risk. According to Deltek’s 2025 GovCon Clarity Report, nearly half of project leaders rank cost forecasting and risk identification among their top challenges, with poorly defined scope and communication issues continuing to impact project performance. At the same time, the report highlights a shift in how teams are tackling these challenges: 40% now list AI and machine learning among their top three technology investment priorities, and 45% are already using AI to improve internal operations.

Turning Uncertainty into Action

With Acumen 8.11, Deltek introduces Dela-Enabled Risk Discovery & Mitigation, an AI-powered enhancement designed to help project teams work faster and smarter. This new capability surfaces potential risks and generates context-specific mitigation strategies based on project type and location, simplifying one of the most time-consuming steps in risk planning. Teams can now focus on analysis and decision-making instead of manual data entry, accelerating their ability to respond to project uncertainty.

Dela generates potential risks based on project type and location and adds them to the risk register.

Unlike other solutions that rely on user-entered data and manual scenario analysis, Acumen 8.11 delivers a balanced approach. It pairs AI-driven automation with Acumen’s proven quantitative risk modeling, giving project teams both speed and accuracy. While many tools that evaluate schedules simply suggest alternative activity durations based on historical data, addressing uncertainty rather than true risk, Acumen’s Dela-Enabled Risk Discovery is designed to surface specific risks relevant to your unique project. Importantly, Acumen protects your sensitive schedule data by only sharing additional context information with AI, not your actual schedule, so your proprietary project details remain secure. This combination sets Acumen apart, offering the intelligence to predict what could go wrong and the analytical depth to show how to make it right.

Dela suggests mitigation steps for selected risks.

Real-World Value for Project Teams

By integrating Dela-enabled intelligence directly into the risk management process, Acumen 8.11 empowers teams to gain deeper insight into project uncertainty while maintaining the rigor that project controls professionals expect. The result is a faster, more data-informed approach to identifying risk exposure and evaluating mitigation strategies across cost and schedule. Whether building proposals, managing active projects, or reporting to stakeholders, Acumen 8.11 gives teams greater confidence in their forecasts and plans.

Enhancements That Drive Results

Acumen 8.11 helps project teams work smarter, faster, and with greater confidence. The latest release introduces improvements across the Acumen suite designed to simplify workflows, strengthen compliance, and accelerate decision-making.

Acumen Risk: Smarter, Faster Risk Management

Acumen 8.11 transforms risk management with AI-powered capabilities that reduce manual effort and speed up planning. Teams can identify risks faster, generate tailored mitigation strategies, and model contract penalties with confidence. Enhanced visualization tools make it easier to communicate risk exposure clearly to stakeholders.

Acumen Fuse: Greater Efficiency for Schedule Analysis

Fuse enhancements streamline complex schedule reviews. Multi-period analysis is now simpler, and improved Excel integration reduces setup time, helping teams move quickly from data preparation to actionable insights.

Acumen Touchstone: Stronger Control and Benchmarking

Touchstone updates give organizations more confidence in managing sensitive data and comparing project performance. Improved security controls, flexible system preferences, and easier benchmarking support better governance and global collaboration.

Acumen Suite: Integrations that Drive Performance

Improved integrations with tools such as Deltek Open Plan, Oracle P6, MS Project and Powerproject make workflows smoother and more connected, ensuring teams can work efficiently at scale.

Together, these updates make Acumen 8.11 the most intelligent, connected, and user-friendly release yet, helping teams plan, assess, and deliver projects with greater precision and confidence.

See Acumen 8.11 in Action

Ready to turn uncertainty into opportunity? Explore the latest Acumen update and discover how smarter risk planning can help your team deliver with confidence. Be sure to join our PPM Solutions Customer Town Hall in December for a closer look at what’s new in Acumen 8.11 and how to get the most out of this release.

For additional information regarding the updates, please refer to Acumen’s release notes available in Deltek’s Learning Hub.