The Pilot Graveyard
Lots of promising pilots, and none of them became how the work gets done.
The lines under "How it sounds" are typical phrasing we wrote, not quotes from clients or interviews.
How it sounds
- “The pilot went great, and then everyone got busy.”
- “We tried AI for that last year.”
- “It works for Jen, but nobody else uses it.”
What it looks like
Pilots start with energy and show good results for one person or one team, and then they stop. Nobody owns the move from test to everyday process, nothing gets written down, and the next pilot starts from zero. Over time people stop volunteering, because they've seen how it ends.
Why it happens
Pilots are set up to start, not to finish. There's no owner for the rollout, no success measure agreed up front and no time set aside to change the process around the tool.
What it costs
- SAS and IDC found 44.9% of small and mid-sized companies say successful pilots stay siloed, 19.4% repeat them informally and only 11.2% scale them in a systematic way.
- The human cost is change fatigue and a belief that nothing will change. For AI that cost is our reasoning, because it makes the next good idea harder to start.
First move
Before the next pilot starts, write three lines: who owns the rollout if it works, what number says it worked and which written process changes. If nobody can fill in the first line, don't start the pilot yet.
The fifteen patterns, with what each one costs and a first move, are in The AI anti-pattern field guide.
Related AI patterns
- Automating the Mess. AI speeds up the process you already have, including the parts that don't work.
- The Tool Pile. Every tool made sense when you bought it. Together they don't add up to a plan.
- Counting Logins. Everyone's using AI, and nobody can say what it changed.
An AI strategy decides who owns the work, which tools stay, and what changes first.