What the AI failure headlines aren’t telling you

The organisations seeing lasting impact with AI aren’t just deploying the technology – they’re building the human capabilities that create new value.

If you have opened your morning briefings over the past month, you have likely encountered headlines like: “95% of AI projects fail”. While these stories generate clicks, they miss the more important question: what separates the organisations realising real AI value from those that are not?

The gap between success and failure comes down to execution, not technology. Having transformed our own organisation and guided clients through theirs, we’ve identified three deciding factors.

1. Leadership commitment from the top – Successful AI transformations are not delegated to IT departments or innovation labs. They have CEOs and executive teams actively driving change, making important decisions about resource allocation, and modelling AI adoption in their own work.
2. Pursue specific use cases with clear commercial outcomes – Successful organisations identify which use cases to target, set specific measurable commercial targets, then structure workflows to demonstrate those results rather than running exploratory pilots.
3. Investment in managing the people impact – This means comprehensive change management, reskilling programs, and systematic approaches to adoption. Successful organisations recognise that AI transformation is primarily about changing how people work, not just implementing new technology.

The organisations struggling with AI treat it as a technology procurement exercise – select a tool, provide training, expect results. But those achieving genuine returns understand it requires leadership commitment, focused use cases, and people investment working together.

Where are you strongest among these three factors, and where do you need to focus next?