Why so many AI initiatives fail?

AI hasn’t failed, but a lot of leadership teams have.

Executives are scaling back after early pilots underperformed.
But most of those projects were never set up to succeed in the first place.

Here is what I've seen:

• Unclear goals that weren't tied to business outcomes.
• Teams launching pilots without a plan to operationalize results.
• No agreement on how success would be measured or who owned it.
• Pressure to “do something with AI” without asking why it mattered.

In one case, a healthcare org spent millions chasing a big-name partner without a clear path to profitability.

I wish I could say these are rare exceptions, but they're not.
They’re baked into how too many tech initiatives get funded and approved.

If the executive team can’t define the value or own the risk.
The AI won’t save them.

Originally posted on LinkedIn.