How to take AI from pilots to deliver real business value

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How to take AI from pilots to deliver real business value Opinion By Jakob Freund published 9 February 2026

Five practical steps for a successful AI program

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AI is no longer just experimental technology; it has become a competitive advantage for organizations. Across industries, leaders are exploring the transformative possibilities of agentic AI, from improving customer experience, cutting costs and freeing up teams for higher-value work.

While the potential is enormous, readiness often lags behind ambition, with forecasts indicating that by 2027, more than 40% of projects described as agentic AI will be scrapped before they deliver meaningful outcomes.

Jakob FreundSocial Links Navigation

CEO and Co-Founder of Camunda.

To prevent wasted investment, organizations are focused on transforming AI from pilots into full-scale programs that deliver real business value. And while many initiatives look impressive in controlled demos or limited proofs, early wins rarely translate into operational impact.

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Structure is often a barrier here, as without the right foundation and governance in place, AI agents can become isolated experiments that drain time, budget and confidence. As the need for AI to deliver business impact intensifies, how can organizations successfully shift from experimentation to disciplined execution?

What sets successful AI programs apart?

Analyzing AI success stories reveals that organizations that can deliver real value with technology take a deliberate, structured approach to deployment.

Strong AI programs start with a business-first vision, with leaders setting clear outcomes for these initiatives such as accelerating claims processing, improving fraud detection or increasing customer retention.

Collaboration is another defining characteristic. AI isn’t the responsibility of a single team or department. Successful programs rely on cross-functional groups – often structured as centers of excellence – to establish standards, share best practices and ensure close Business-IT alignment.

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This cultural alignment must also be reflected in technological systems. Flexible architecture ensures AI agents are connected to existing systems, preventing silos. By fostering both human and technical collaboration, organizations create an environment where AI can be scaled effectively and deliver measurable business value.

Governance is also built-in from day one. Mature organizations integrate human-in-the-loop checks, confidence scoring, escalation paths and fallback logic directly into workflows. This approach creates consistency, manages risk and enables safe scaling without organizations losing control.

Metrics also go beyond technical performance to focus on business-impact Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as cost savings, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

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Finally, AI-ready companies treat AI as a living system. Telemetry and performance data are monitored continuously and used to refine prompts, tune models, and optimize processes. As a result, these organizations ensure that AI evolves with the business instead of becoming static or outdated.

AI systems that fail to adapt become stagnant, leading to wasted investment and missed opportunities for improvement or growth.

Five practical steps to operationalize AI

For technology leaders seeking to scale AI responsibly, these five practical tips can help reduce common pitfalls:

1. Map the process first: Understand business processes from end-to-end and pinpoint where AI can genuinely help, whether through decision support or triage. AI powered steps need to be modelled alongside human tasks to ensure responsibilities are crystal clear.
2. Create repeatable building blocks: Create templates for agent-led processes with clear human oversight and rules. Embedding standard patterns such as “AI recommends, human approves” will accelerate adoption whilst ensuring compliance and consistency.
3. Embed governance in workflows: Build compliance, escalation protocols and ethical guardrails directly into process logic. This approach is critical for highly regulated sectors, such as the financial services industry, where governance is critical for fraud prevention and claims assessment.
4. Make every action traceable: Log inputs, outputs and contextual factors for every AI-driven action. This transparency supports audits and debugging, drives trust and provides the data needed for continuous improvement.
5. Commit to continuous improvement: Use telemetry and KPI insights to refine prompts, train models and optimize the process. Treat AI agents as living components of your automation strategy, not static tools.

Why leadership matters

Scaling AI successfully is more than chasing the latest technology trend – it's about building organizational capabilities that will deliver long-term value. Leaders need to start the process with a clear purpose and foster cross-functional collaboration to ensure AI is integrated seamlessly into day-to-day processes.

At the same time, investing in the right system and framework is critical for AI initiatives to operate with accountability, transparency and governance from the beginning.

The temptation to rush into deployments is always strong, especially when early pilots show promise. Organizations that succeed with AI resist this urge, focusing first on building a robust foundation.

This foundation involves creating repeatable processes, defining clear ownership, and aligning initiatives with business objectives before scaling. When AI agents are designed to operate autonomously while adhering to governance and strategic priorities, they move beyond simple tools to drive sustainable, long-term value.

With this foundation, AI can evolve from a patchwork of disconnected experiments into a reliable engine for efficiency, growth, and competitive advantage.

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TOPICS AI Jakob FreundSocial Links Navigation

CEO and Co-Founder of Camunda.

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