From AI Pilots to Enterprise Value: A CDO’s Playbook
What Separates a Use Case Graveyard from Elevated Collaborative Intelligence
By Carsten Krause — June 10, 2025
A featured chapter insight from HI + AI = ECI™: The Rise of Elevated Collaborative Intelligence™
When it comes to enterprise AI, success isn’t measured by how many pilots you’ve launched. It’s measured by how many have actually changed your business.
Let’s cut through the noise. Chief Data Officers are under pressure to show progress—but spinning out dozens of AI use cases that never scale isn’t progress. It’s motion masquerading as transformation. The real challenge lies in converting experimentation into execution, and execution into enterprise value.
This article isn’t just a roadmap—it’s a wake-up call. Drawing from my work leading AI-driven transformations at Campbell’s and Wendy’s, I’ll show what it takes to move beyond the graveyard of abandoned use cases into a future powered by scalable, intelligent systems. And at the core of this journey is a fundamental principle: HI + AI = ECI™—Elevated Collaborative Intelligence™, where human leadership and artificial intelligence amplify each other to create enterprise breakthroughs.
The AI Pilot Factory Dilemma
The typical AI program looks something like this: enthusiastic innovation teams roll out 30+ pilots in a year, most of them focused on narrow wins—automated document processing, demand forecasts, or chatbot trials. On paper, it’s impressive. In reality, 80% of those projects quietly die before making it to production.
Why?
Because they were never architected for value. They were built to prove a concept—not to change how a business operates. And therein lies the trap.
A functional AI enterprise roadmap begins not with a model, but with a business problem worth solving, a measurable outcome, and cross-functional ownership from day one. In the HI + AI = ECI™ framework, this is where “collaborative intelligence” becomes the lever—because no machine learning model can succeed without the humans who will deploy, trust, and scale it.
Wendy’s: From Fast Food to Fast Intelligence
When Wendy’s deployed FreshAI, a conversational AI platform at its drive-thrus, most saw it as just another automation play. But behind the scenes, something more strategic was happening.
The pilot in Columbus, Ohio achieved an 86% autonomous order rate—far beyond industry norms. But it wasn’t luck. It was designed as a cross-functional experiment from day one. Restaurant operators, field managers, and technologists co-created the pilot criteria, reviewed performance together, and jointly defined scale-readiness.
According to CEO Kirk Tanner the chain has seen improvements to order accuracy and efficiency in restaurants since employees can now focus on speed of service and delivering an accurate order.
Source: Customer Experience Dive
In our HI + AI = ECI™ maturity model, this was a textbook case of Level 4: Integrated Intelligence. Not only did the AI function within the operational workflow, it enhanced the human experience—for both employees and customers.
Today, Wendy’s is scaling FreshAI to 500+ stores, backed by an expanded digital twin model (built with Palantir) to forecast inventory and staffing in real time.
AI may have been the spark—but human intelligence, incentives, and infrastructure were the fuel.
Chart 1: Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Success Rates Across Industries
The data is clear: most AI pilots fail not due to poor technology—but due to lack of integration, ownership, and operational embedding. That’s what the ECI framework was designed to change.
The Playbook Shift: From Pilots to ECI-Driven Portfolios
Successful CDOs no longer measure progress in number of use cases—they measure enterprise value.
At CDO TIMES, we’ve developed the “AI Value Multiplier Map™,” a proprietary 4-zone framework that guides AI initiatives from experiment to impact:
- Value Canvas – Identify true business pain points with measurable outcomes.
- Pilot Operating Model – Build AI + HI teams, not tech-only pods.
- Deployment Blueprints – Define MLOps, retraining, and org-wide integrations from day one.
- Scale Sustainably – Codify change management, frontline enablement, and feedback loops.
Every pilot that fails to evolve through these layers becomes legacy debt. Every pilot that advances becomes part of your AI operating system.
Chart 2: The HI + AI = ECI™ Maturity Ladder
We’ve mapped how companies progress from isolated pilots to scaled intelligence:
Source: CDO TIMES Research, HI + AI = ECI™ 2025 Benchmark
https://cdotimes.com/research/ecimaturity2025
Where you land on this ladder directly correlates with your enterprise AI ROI—and your competitive edge.
Controversy or Clarity? Why AI-First Isn’t Enough
It’s trendy for executives to declare, “We’re becoming AI-first.” But if you don’t first become HI + AI aligned, you’re just throwing tech at problems you haven’t truly diagnosed.
Let’s be provocative: AI-first doesn’t mean putting AI everywhere. It means building systems where human and artificial intelligence operate in lockstep—where AI informs, but doesn’t replace; where humans elevate, rather than override; and where success is measured not by innovation awards, but by operational lift.
This is the very essence of Elevated Collaborative Intelligence™. Not just better AI. Smarter humans amplified by AI in structured, ethical, and sustainable ways.
Chart 3: The ECI Equation in Action
ECI = (AI + HI) × T – R
Where:
- AI = Your technical capabilities, models, platforms
- HI = Leadership strength, incentives, and literacy
- T = Technology readiness (infra, tools, governance)
- R = Risk (compliance, data quality, ethical friction)
Our analysis across industries shows that enterprises underinvest in HI by 40%—which severely undermines ROI from even world-class AI stacks.
Source: HI + AI = ECI™ Book Research, Chapter 5 Data
https://cdotimes.com/book/hiai-eci-formula
The CDO TIMES Bottom Line
CDOs who are serious about value must stop measuring AI in outputs and start measuring it in outcomes. That means shifting focus from model development to operational excellence. From dashboards to decision redesign. From technology theater to Elevated Collaborative Intelligence™.
The playbook is clear:
- Tie every AI initiative to a measurable business metric.
- Build cross-functional HI + AI pods from the beginning.
- Define your scale criteria upfront—and kill what doesn’t meet it.
- Don’t just go AI-first. Go HI + AI aligned—because ECI is what scales.
If you want your pilots to fly—and your enterprise to thrive—it’s time to move beyond experimentation and into transformation.
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