The Pilot Graveyard Problem
Your organization has at least three AI projects running right now. One is promising. One is consuming budget with unclear ROI. One will be abandoned in Q3.
This is not a criticism. It is the current state of enterprise AI adoption. Most C-suites lack a vendor-independent framework to separate signal from noise—to distinguish genuine competitive advantage from technology theater.
The cost is real: stranded pilots, duplicate tooling licenses, technical debt from misaligned implementations, and board-level credibility erosion when AI investments fail to materialize promised returns.
An AI/ML strategy audit exists to solve this. Not as hand-waving consulting. As a structured, 90-day engagement that maps which initiatives drive measurable ROI and which should be killed, deferred, or completely reframed.
What a Vendor-Independent Audit Actually Does
1. Map Your Current AI Footprint
We inventory what you're running: tools, models, workflows, teams, and budget allocation. We identify overlaps, blind spots, and technical debt. More importantly, we assess which initiatives align with board metrics and which exist because someone thought they should.
2. Assess ROI Potential Against Your Board KPIs
We reverse-engineer your business model. What moves the needle for revenue, margin, risk, or operational efficiency? Then we evaluate each AI initiative against those vectors. This eliminates the trap of optimizing for "AI maturity" instead of shareholder value.
3. Build a 90-Day Roadmap Tied to Concrete Outcomes
We don't hand you a 18-month transformation vision. We identify which three to five initiatives will ship measurable results within 12 weeks. We define success metrics. We assign ownership. We make the roadmap board-ready.
"Most AI strategy documents are written for CIOs. A real strategy is written for the board—in terms of revenue impact, risk mitigation, and competitive advantage. Everything else is implementation detail."
4. Flag Technical and Organizational Risks
We assess your team's capability to execute. Can your data engineering support the roadmap? Do you have MLOps maturity? Are there governance or compliance blockers? We identify where you need to hire, outsource, or restructure.
5. Recommend Build vs. Buy vs. Partner
We've worked with enterprises across 15+ industries. We know where custom LLM development pays off, where you should license off-the-shelf tools, and where you should partner with specialists. We give you the economics of each path.
What Success Looks Like in Month One
By week 4, your executive team should be able to answer these questions with confidence:
Which AI initiatives will be live and generating ROI by Q4?
Which pilots are worth killing, and how much will you save?
Where do you need to invest in talent or infrastructure?
What is the board-ready narrative for AI investment for the next 18 months?
Which vendor partnerships or build decisions reduce risk?
You'll have a prioritized backlog. You'll have budget clarity. You'll have accountability. Most importantly, you'll have a strategy that's decoupled from vendor pitch cycles and grounded in your actual business model.
Who This Is For
This engagement is for CFOs, CEOs, and Chief Strategy Officers who are tired of AI ambiguity. You've invested in pilots. You have competing priorities from different business units. You need an outside perspective to validate direction and kill the things that won't work.
You're not looking for a vendor. You're looking for an honest broker who speaks fluent technology, board language, and business economics.
Work with us on this
In week one, we deliver an AI footprint audit and a preliminary risk assessment. You'll see which of your current initiatives have genuine ROI potential and which are consuming resources without justification. By the end of week two, we've mapped your roadmap against board metrics. By week four, you have a 12-month strategy, a 90-day execution plan, and clear decisions on build, buy, and partner.
This is for enterprises serious about AI adoption—not AI exploration. If you're shipping features, closing customer deals, or defending market share with AI in the next two quarters, this audit will compress your decision timeline and eliminate costly misalignment.
Start here: AI/ML Strategy Consultation. Let's map where AI actually drives ROI for your organization.
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Originally published on the Modulus1 insights blog. Browse more analysis on AI, SEO, and automation.
