/ˈpaɪlət ˈpɜːrgətɔːri/The waiting room of innovation.
Definition
The persistent state where enterprise AI projects stall. While "Cathedral Dreams" predict rapid rollout,
reality sees thousands of "successful pilots" that never go into production. This is caused by the "Last
Mile Problem": the difficulty of moving from 95% accuracy (good for a demo) to 99.9% reliability (necessary
for critical business processes).
The 95% Trap
AI is miraculous at getting 95% of the way there instantly. But the final 5%—handling edge cases,
ensuring safety, guaranteeing compliance—takes exponentially more effort than the first 95%. Many
projects die in this gap.
Field Notes & Ephemera
Field Note: We have a thousand proofs of concept and zero production deployments. We
are drowning in potential.