Is Your Successful AI Proof Of Concept Hiding Risks?

Taras Tymoshchuk is the founder and CEO of Geniusee.

​The Deloitte 2026 “State of AI in the Enterprise” report, based on a survey of more than 3,000 executives, “found that only 25% of respondents have moved 40% or more of their AI pilots into production.​”

That matches what I’ve seen in enterprise AI work. A convincing proof of concept (PoC) often creates confidence at exactly the point when leaders should become more demanding. The model performs well with curated data, a small user group and experts nearby to correct mistakes. Production removes those protections.

A business needs the system to consistently deliver useful, safe and economical outcomes in a live workflow. That means testing value, data, integrations, controls, ownership and economics together.

A demo can hide the business gaps.

Most PoCs begin by asking: Can the model perform this task? Leaders also need to define what changes in the business would occur if it succeeds.

When I review an AI initiative, I ask for the current baseline, target improvement, expected volume, acceptable failure rate and cost ceiling. “Better efficiency” is too broad. Reducing support-resolution time by 25% or cutting manual review by half gives the team something it can evaluate.

The project also needs an accountable business owner. Engineering, data, security and compliance may own different controls, but someone must own the operational result and decide whether the evidence justifies further investment. A pilot without that ownership can remain active long after its business case has disappeared.

Production begins where the demo ends.

PoCs often use clean exports, selected documents or a limited data snapshot. Live enterprise data arrives fragmented, outdated, duplicated and protected by different permissions. The system must also interact with existing tools, approval paths and user roles.

The economics change at scale.

Make the PoC earn the next investment.

Before approving a pilot, I’d ask four questions: