Simple fact is - Most AI projects fail!
Here’s how to make yours work.
Why This Playbook Matters
Business leaders today face two conflicting realities: every headline screams that AI will transform work, yet most AI initiatives fizzle. A recent MIT report claims that billions are wasted annually, with 95% of companies failing to integrate AI in ways that actually move the dial.
The lesson? AI on its own doesn’t deliver results. It needs the same rigour you’d apply to any productivity initiative: clear goals, mapped processes, and team buy-in.
This playbook offers a framework to help you see where AI can add value in your business. It won’t give you the full recipe - that’s where the type of expert facilitation and design that Kallista Consulting can offer comes in - but it will show you the shape of the opportunity.
The 3 Common Pitfalls of AI Adoption
As with any change initiative, there are important considerations that need to be made to avoid derailing your efforts
Pitfall 1: Chasing shiny objects. Leaders get dazzled by demos or case studies and try to copy-paste tools without asking: Does this solve a real problem for us?
Pitfall 2: Ignoring processes. Productivity doesn’t improve if broken workflows stay broken. AI just automates the pain.
Pitfall 3: Forgetting people. Teams often feel threatened, confused, or simply under-trained. Without capability uplift, adoption stalls.
Pitfall 4: Leaving out the governance piece. When using AI tools that are hosted with third parties, your data, and possibly that of your clients, is being sent outside your organisation. You need to carefully consider the potential implications of this and factor it into your AI strategies. One option is bring the AI inside your firewalls, which will require technical support.
Your takeaway: AI only pays off when it is anchored to business priorities, process improvement, and people capability. Miss any one, and you join the 95% who fail.
Value Stream Mapping lends itself perfectly to identifying AI Integration Opportunities
Step One: Map the Bottlenecks and Identify the opportunities
Before throwing the AI technology at your processes, identify where it might actually be of most benefit. Where does work slow, or quality suffer? Ask three simple questions:
Where are the delays?
Where is the rework?
Where do costs consistently blow out?
Capture these in a simple grid: Bottleneck | Current Cost | Impact if Fixed.
Example: In one manufacturer, the weekly production report took two staff three days to complete. Fixing this bottleneck freed up six staff-days per month.
This isn’t about perfection—just a structured conversation. The patterns you uncover will point to where AI could have the greatest impact.
Valus stream mapping is a great tool here. An experienced Lean practitioner will be ab le to assist you facilitate the creation of Value Stream Maps for your processes if you are not familiar with the technique.
Step Two: Spot AI Opportunities
With bottlenecks on the table, ask: Could AI help here? Look for repetitive, rules-based, or data-heavy tasks. Typical high-value areas include:
Automating documentation and reporting.
Analysing operational trends in real time.
Drafting and checking communications.
Scheduling workflows or resource allocation.
Case snapshot: A service provider used AI to triage customer emails. What once took staff two hours a day now takes five minutes.
At this stage, resist the urge to jump into specific tools or prompts. The point is to see the categories where AI might play, not to design the system.
Where AI does and doesn’t work well
An Impact to Effort Matrix helps teams to quickly establish priority improvements
Step Three: Build Your AI Roadmap
Once you’ve listed opportunities, sort them using a simple Impact vs Effort grid:
Quick Wins: low effort, high impact (e.g., automating a repetitive report).
Strategic Projects: high effort, high impact (e.g., redesigning a scheduling system).
Park for Later: low impact, high effort.
This grid helps you avoid the common trap of chasing “cool” projects that soak up time but deliver little. Many leaders find bias creeps in at this stage—what feels urgent isn’t always what matters most. Using a team to discuss where opportunities fit on the matrix with a structured facilitator guiding the session helps cut through that noise and creates buy-in to the prioritised list.
Step Four: Capability Lift
AI tools are only as good as the people using them. Leaders who skip this step often see adoption fail.
Think about three layers of capability:
Awareness: staff understand what AI can and can’t do.
Application: staff know how to use AI responsibly in daily work.
Adoption: leaders and teams embed AI into processes and decision-making.
Training isn’t just about “using ChatGPT.” It’s about building confidence, judgement, and the ability to see opportunities. Without that, the roadmap stays on paper. Design a training course that promotes understanding of what AI can do, how it does it and how it is to be implemented in your organisation. This requires tailoring of content to suit your specific suite of tools and how they are integrated into your business.
Where to Next
At this point, you have:
A clear picture of bottlenecks.
A shortlist of potential AI opportunities.
A basic roadmap of priorities.
A sense of the capability gap.
You could try to take this forward internally. Or, you could accelerate results by working with a partner who brings 20 years of process improvement expertise plus hands-on AI integration know-how.
And that’s where we come in! Not only can we facilitate all the above steps with your team, but we can also create and facilitate the training and support your AI initiatives, bringing our analytical and problem-solving skills to bear to make AI work for you to provide real, measurable productivity. Kallista Consulting offers a short diagnostic workshop that translates your playbook insights into a practical AI productivity roadmap, aligned directly to your KPIs. It’s the fastest way to move from theory to measurable gains.
T: 1800 088 494
E: info@kallistaconsulting.com.au
W: www.kallistaconsulting.com.au
Or book an appointment to talk to one of our business advisors