Why most AI pilots never reach production

Many AI pilots succeed in a demo and stall soon after. The usual reason is not the model. It is everything around it: data that is not ready, no plan for monitoring, and no clear owner once the pilot team moves on.

Treat the pilot as the first release of a real service. Agree who will own it, how its results will be checked, and what it is allowed to cost, before the first line of code.

Teams that plan for production from day one spend a little more time at the start, and far less time later explaining why the pilot never went live.