Stuck in pilot - Part 1: The illusion of progress

“We just need to test the AI. We’ll figure out the data later.” That sentence has quietly killed more AI pilots than any model failure ever could. Most AI pilots don’t fail because the tech didn’t work. They fail because no one did the groundwork. No clean data. No integration path. No clear problem. No business owner. Just a well-intentioned scramble to “try AI” and show something in a demo,…