Pilot Purgatory Extraction Audit

Before You Begin

Is your pilot in Purgatory?

If an AI pilot has been trapped in the testing phase for more than 90 days without being fully adopted by the frontline workforce, it is in Pilot Purgatory. Do not spend another dollar on engineering until the Executive Sponsor completes this three-part diagnostic. Answer each question honestly based on current, verified evidence — not aspirational targets or lab results.

To escape Purgatory and advance to enterprise scale, a pilot must score 6 out of 6 "Yes" answers. Anything less requires an immediate pivot or a ruthless kill command.

Pilot & Project Details

Pilot / Project Name

Department / Business Unit

Date

Organization & Sponsor

Organization Name

Industry

Annual Revenue

Executive Sponsor

Project Lead

Employees

Part 1 of 3

The Automation Check

The test of Technical Feasibility

Question 1 of 6

Can the core logic required to complete this task be documented on a single sheet of paper without relying on a human's "gut feeling"?

Question 2 of 6

If the AI makes a mistake, is the "blast radius" contained internally — with zero customer-facing or legal exposure?

Part 2 of 3

The Adaptation Check

The test of Operational Maintenance

Question 3 of 6

Have we formally budgeted the 20% ongoing OpEx "Gardening Cost" to continuously review and retrain this model after launch?

Question 4 of 6

Do we have a live dashboard that alerts us when the model's confidence score drops below our established baseline?

Part 3 of 3

The Traction Check

The test of Cultural Acceptance

Question 5 of 6

Are the test users actively complaining when the AI pilot goes offline for maintenance — demonstrating genuine dependency on the tool?

Question 6 of 6

Has the test group achieved at least 30% improvement in the targeted metric?

Diagnostic Summary

Gate Status by Check

Part 1

Automation Check

Awaiting answers

Part 2

Adaptation Check

Awaiting answers

Part 3

Traction Check

Awaiting answers

Final Verdict

—

Yes Answers

—

No Answers

—

Gates Cleared

Recommended Actions

Source: RealizeAI Value Benchmark Corpus, aggregated from 45 industry-published reports and surveys, Mar 2025 – Mar 2026. Scoring framework from The Machine Speaks Human by Prashant Kandukuri — Scoring Tool 6.1.