Human Pilots AI
Frequently Asked Questions
Most AI initiatives fail because organizations can't adapt fast enough, not because the technology doesn't work. We help executives rebuild the capabilities that determine whether AI sticks or stalls: adaptability, resilience, and confidence.
How This Works
Why aren't our AI pilots scaling?
You’ve launched pilots. Some show promise. But when you try to scale, adoption drops, enthusiasm fades, and ROI never materializes. This happens in roughly 80% of enterprise AI projects, according to industry research from BCG and McKinsey.
The problem isn’t your technology or your people. It’s that pilot success doesn’t predict organizational success. What works for 10 people in one department hits very different barriers when you try to reach 1,000 people across multiple functions. Strategy misalignment, structural bottlenecks, and adoption friction kill momentum before you see results.
We start with our Strategic AI Readiness Diagnostic that reveals where you’re actually stuck — not where you think you’re stuck. Then we guide 3–4 strategic implementations that solve real business problems while building your organization’s internal capability to keep scaling after we’re gone. Most engagements run 6–12 weeks because velocity matters more than perfection.
What makes you different from other AI consultants?
We’ve lived these transformations from both sides — inside enterprises like IBM and outside as advisors. We’ve seen these patterns play out through the Internet wave, the digital transformation wave, and now AI. We know how these cycles break down.
Most firms treat AI adoption as a technology problem. We treat it as an organizational capability problem. Companies with strong change management capabilities are 47% more likely to meet their AI objectives, according to McKinsey research. We build that capability while delivering results.
Practically, that means: other consultants leave you with a strategy deck. We leave you with trained internal champions, redesigned workflows showing measurable adoption, and frameworks your teams can use without us. We’re vendor-agnostic and sit on your side of the table. We don’t profit from which tools you buy.
How long does this take?
Most engagements run 6–12 weeks. We don’t do year-long projects that delay results.
For organizations needing strategic clarity first, we offer an AI Strategy Sprint (6–8 weeks) that delivers your AI strategy, readiness assessment, and a roadmap for high-impact pilots.
For organizations ready to implement, we run a Human+AI Workflow Program (12 weeks) where we redesign 2–3 workflows, measure adoption, and build internal capability to continue scaling.
Some clients extend to tackle additional business units or more complex challenges. But you’ll see tangible value within the first 8 weeks, not the first year.
What do we actually get from working with you?
You get tools and capabilities, not just recommendations. Specifically:
A collaboration framework tailored to your organization that defines how humans and AI work together.
An organizational health assessment that shows where you’re strong and where you’re fragile.
A strategy with clear metrics and accountability so everyone knows what success looks like.
You also get 2–3 redesigned workflows with measured adoption rates (we target 60–80% consistent usage within 90 days, compared to an industry average of 20–25%). You get a manager enablement toolkit so middle managers can guide their teams through the uncertainty of working with AI. And you get trained internal champions who can lead future initiatives without us.
The most important deliverable is adoption. Everything we build is designed to be used, not filed away. If your people aren’t using it 90 days later, we haven’t succeeded.
What results should we expect?
We focus on three outcomes you can measure: productivity gains, adoption rates, and human capital advancement.
On productivity: JPMorgan Chase saw an 83% reduction in research time after deploying their LLM suite to 200,000+ employees. Wells Fargo reduced query response time from 10 minutes to 30 seconds for 35,000 bankers. These aren’t our clients, but they show what’s possible when adoption actually happens. You can see how our clients achieve similar outcomes in our case studies.
On adoption: Industry average is 20–25% consistent AI usage. Our clients typically hit 60–80% within 90 days. Bank of America has achieved over 90% employee adoption of their AI tools.
On human capital: Organizations with structured AI strategies see significantly higher employee engagement, according to organizational research. Unlike approaches that drive stock price at the expense of employee experience, you can gain productivity while advancing rather than damaging your workforce.
We measure these throughout the engagement, not just at the end.
Getting Started
How do we start?
Three steps:
Take our Strategic AI Readiness Diagnostic (15 minutes).
Schedule a consultation to review your results (30 minutes).
Design an engagement that fits your needs — either a Sprint for strategic clarity or a Program for implementation.
The diagnostic measures your organization across five dimensions that predict AI success: strategy alignment, organizational structure, change management capability, learning culture, and governance readiness. You get a clear picture of where you stand before committing to anything.
What does this cost?
Investment varies based on your organizational size, complexity, and whether you need strategic clarity first or are ready to implement. Most engagements are structured to deliver ROI within the first quarter.
During your consultation, we’ll provide a detailed proposal that accounts for the number of workflows being redesigned, the level of change management support needed, and your organization’s specific challenges. You can also review how we structure engagements for more context.
This is a serious investment. But compare it to the cost of continuing to run AI pilots that never scale — or worse, rolling out AI initiatives that damage employee trust and culture.
What if this doesn’t work for our organization?
We minimize that risk through our diagnostic-first approach. Organizations that skip readiness are the ones that typically fail. We identify gaps in organizational health, change management capability, and strategic clarity before implementation.
Every engagement includes milestone-based deliverables at two-week intervals. You’ll see measurable progress along the way, not just at the end. After the first month, we run a comprehensive review. If we’re not tracking toward the outcomes we defined together, we adjust scope, refocus efforts, or pause the engagement.
We also start with 1–2 pilot workflows, not an enterprise-wide rollout. We measure adoption weekly and adjust when people struggle. And we train internal champions so success doesn’t depend solely on our presence.
The bigger risk is continuing to invest in AI initiatives that never deliver while competitors build real capability. Every quarter you delay costs you in competitive advantage and internal credibility.
Do you offer shorter discovery engagements?
Yes. If you’re not ready for a full Sprint or Program, we offer a Strategic Assessment (2–4 weeks) that gives you a clear diagnostic of your organizational health and AI readiness. You’ll understand where you stand and what to tackle first.
We also run Executive Workshops (1–2 days) to align your leadership team on AI strategy, identify quick wins, and build executive commitment for broader change.
These shorter engagements often lead to full programs once you see the quality of the insights and our approach.
Who This Is For
Who are your typical clients?
Executive leaders at large and complex organizations who recognize they have an organizational readiness problem, not just a technology problem.
You might be our client if:
You’ve launched AI pilots that aren’t scaling.
Your people are resistant to or confused about AI.
You need measurable business results, not more experiments.
You’re facing board or market pressure to show AI ROI.
We work across financial services, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, and professional services. What matters most isn’t your industry. It’s your organizational health and leadership commitment to doing AI adoption right.
Who should not work with you?
We’re not the right fit if you’re looking for someone to build custom AI models or infrastructure. We’re strategy and adoption experts, not a software development shop.
We’re also not a fit if you expect AI to replace your workforce rather than advance it. We only take on clients committed to human augmentation, not headcount reduction.
We’re not a match if you want results next month. Real adoption takes 6–12 weeks minimum. And if you want a hands-off engagement where consultants disappear for months and come back with a slide deck, that’s not how we work.
We work with leaders who want to do AI adoption right, not just fast.
Can you work with our global teams?
Yes. We’ve designed our programs to work across time zones and cultures.
We deliver most content asynchronously — recorded workshops, written frameworks, self-paced training — so teams can engage on their schedule. Live sessions are scheduled to accommodate multiple regions when possible.
The best results often come from concentrated in-person workshops for kickoffs and key milestones. We’ll work with you to design a delivery model that fits your global footprint while preserving the level of collaboration needed to drive results.
AI Strategy and Implementation
How do you ensure our teams actually adopt the new AI workflows?
We design for human adoption first, not technical novelty.
Organizations with strong trust, change management capability, and communication systems see much higher adoption rates, according to organizational change research. We assess those foundations before designing any workflow, because AI has to fit how people actually work.
We train your managers to become internal champions who guide their teams through the uncertainty of learning to work with AI. They drive adoption from the middle, where it matters most. We measure adoption weekly and adjust quickly when people struggle, rather than blaming them for “not getting it.”
The result: adoption rates of 60–80% that stick because AI makes work better, not just different.
How is this different from what our internal IT team is doing?
Your internal team builds technical capability. We build organizational capability.
Your IT team selects and implements AI tools, builds infrastructure, ensures security and compliance, and manages AI models and platforms. That’s critical work.
We diagnose why adoption is failing, redesign workflows for human–AI collaboration, train managers to lead human–AI teams, build change management capability, and bridge the gap between C-suite strategy and frontline execution.
Most AI initiatives fail not because of bad technology, but because of poor change management, unclear strategy, or adoption barriers your IT team isn’t equipped to solve. We work alongside your technical teams to keep the organizational side moving at the same pace as the technical side.
What happens after the engagement ends?
Our goal is to build your internal capability, not dependency.
After the engagement, your trained internal champions continue leading AI adoption. We provide asynchronous support for questions and roadblocks. You have frameworks, toolkits, and playbooks to operate independently.
Most clients continue independently with occasional check-ins. Some engage us for later phases as they tackle new business challenges or expand to other divisions. We also offer quarterly strategy reviews to assess progress and adjust your roadmap, or on-demand advisory for new initiatives.
The engagement is designed so you can keep going without us. That’s the point.
Responsible AI and Risk
How do you address AI risks and ethical concerns?
We integrate responsible AI governance from day one. It’s how we design every implementation, not a compliance afterthought.
We define clear principles for when AI should and shouldn’t be used. Some decisions require human judgment, not AI speed. We test AI outputs for discriminatory patterns and build oversight systems to catch problems early. We make sure your people understand how AI reaches its recommendations, because trust depends on visibility.
We also track evolving regulations like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and the EU AI Act to build governance that protects sensitive information. And we design workflows where AI informs, but humans make final decisions on high-stakes tasks.
Organizations that ignore these concerns face regulatory risk, reputational damage, and employee backlash. We help you move quickly while managing these risks responsibly.
Do you work with specific AI tools?
We’re technology-agnostic. We focus on outcomes, not vendors.
We have deep experience with platforms such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, Azure AI, Google Workspace and Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and API solutions, and custom AI solutions built on your existing stack.
We recommend tools based on your current environment, the business problems you’re solving, your governance requirements, and your AI investment budget.
Sometimes the right answer is a commercial platform with built-in governance. Sometimes it’s a custom solution that integrates with your legacy systems. We help you make that decision based on business value, not vendor marketing.
Working Together
What industries do you serve?
We serve organizations where knowledge work drives value:
Financial services (banks, insurance, fintech)
Healthcare (health systems, medical devices, pharma)
Technology (software, managed services)
Manufacturing (advanced manufacturing, supply chain)
Professional services (consulting, legal, accounting)
What matters most isn’t your industry. It’s your organizational health and leadership commitment to doing AI adoption right.
We already have AI consultants. Why would we need you?
Most AI consultants focus on technical implementation — selecting tools, building infrastructure, deploying models. That’s important, but it’s not where most initiatives fail.
The real gap is organizational:
Why won’t your people use the tools you’ve deployed?
Why aren’t pilots scaling?
How do you bridge the gap between C-suite strategy and operational execution?
How do you build the change management capability that predicts AI success?
We complement your technical consultants by solving the organizational challenges they’re not equipped to handle. Or we work independently if you need someone focused on both the technical and human sides of AI adoption.
What’s your philosophy on AI and workforce?
Humans pilot. AI amplifies.
We design human-AI collaboration workflows where your people remain in control and AI supports their existing expertise. This builds what we call execution edge — achieving productivity gains while advancing human capital.
We refuse engagements focused on headcount reduction. We only work with organizations that use AI to augment people, not replace them. That stance shapes everything we do.
The goal is to make your organization smarter and faster without losing what makes it human.
Ready to move from stalled pilots to measurable results?