FIELD BRIEF
Why most AI projects fail before they start.
AI failure isn't a technology problem — it's a preconditions problem. Most companies deploy AI on top of broken or unclear processes. And AI doesn't fix messy processes. It amplifies them.
A Field Brief is a structured, one-page distillation of a key strategic question. Each brief diagnoses the root cause, maps where the gap shows up, and closes with a concrete next step — designed to be read in under 5 minutes and acted on immediately.
Garbage in = garbage out. Fragmented silos, duplicate records, and "dirty" data outrank model choice, budget, and talent as the killer.
"Most companies solve for tool selection when the real question is problem definition — and whether your company culture is ready for it."
The readiness gap shows up in four places.
Garbage
in, out.
No clean, accessible information for AI to work with. Fragmented silos, duplicate records, dirty inputs.
No owner,
no baseline.
Teams rush to deploy and ask "what can AI do for us?" instead of starting from a concrete pain point and a success metric.
Not a tool —
a capability.
Early adopter ships something that works. It stalls at middle management. No mandate, no guts to push it through.
Belief in
miracles.
Executives embark with a high-level goal expecting technologies that need months of data prep or retraining to pay off immediately.
The Move — before touching any tool.
Answer three questions. Honestly.
From the field.
How a stagnant giant rewired itself — on culture, not tooling.
The playbook: risk-taking welcomed, failure depersonalised, customer need above rigid process. No pilots — implementation and iteration.
Experimentation welcomed. Breakthroughs that excessive caution would have stifled. No pilots — implementation and iteration.
Eliminate fear around mistakes. Errors are part of the learning process. Initiative and continuous improvement get rewarded.
Implementing AI is as much a culture challenge as a technical one. Stop asking "which tool?" — start asking whether AI is even the right category, and whether your organisation is ready to carry it past middle management.