Our AI pilot works but nobody uses it — fix the workflow or kill it?
95% of enterprise GenAI pilots yield no measurable P&L impact because faster AI tasks do not shorten cycle times if system bottlenecks remain, leaving workflows unchanged and adoption stalled.
The question
We built an AI pilot that technically works, but the team has not adopted it and the workflow it was meant to improve is unchanged. Do we invest in redesigning the workflow and the change management around it, kill the pilot and redeploy the budget elsewhere, or narrow it to the one step where it clearly helps?
Counsel's position
Narrow the pilot to the single most impactful step, redesigning that specific workflow around it to ensure immediate adoption and value.
Verdict
The verdict: Narrow the pilot to the single most impactful step, redesigning that specific workflow around it to ensure immediate adoption and value.
Faster AI tasks do not shorten cycle times if system bottlenecks remain
Given your pilot's lack of adoption, accelerating a single task is insufficient if the surrounding process is broken.
Enterprise GenAI pilots deliver no measurable impact on profit and loss
Your pilot's failure to gain adoption is the default outcome for standalone AI deployments.
Organizations create more value when AI improves end-to-end processes instead of isolated tasks
Given your decision between narrowing the pilot or redesigning the workflow, isolated task automation rarely yields systemic benefits.
AI adoption is instantaneous when a narrow production slice removes a real pain
If your pilot requires heavy change management, it may be solving the wrong problem.
AI pilots fail in real use because actual workflows contain hidden dependencies
Your pilot likely works technically but fails practically because it ignores unwritten team rules.
Read another verdict
- Buy a tool for this process, or build around our own knowledge?
- Our documents are a mess. Clean them up before AI, or after?
- How do we measure the return on an AI workflow — and what baseline is honest?
- Our best people's know-how isn't written down — can AI even use it?
- Automate this workflow, or redesign it before we automate?
- Which process should we point AI at first?
- Rent AI from a vendor, or run your own?
- Let non-developers ship AI-generated code?