The pilot was a triumph: the AI model performed well on test data, the demo impressed executives, and the business case was approved. Then production reality hit: the model's accuracy dropped on real data, governance required approvals that didn't exist, and no one knew who owned the system. Sound familiar?
Gap 1: Data Reality vs Pilot Data
Pilots use clean, curated datasets. Production data is messy: missing fields, schema changes, duplicate records, and edge cases the pilot never encountered. The fix: run the pilot on production data from day one. If the data isn't clean enough for a pilot, it isn't clean enough for production — and that's the first thing to fix.
Gap 2: Governance and Compliance
Pilots don't need governance. Production does. Who approves model updates? How is bias monitored? What happens when the model makes a wrong prediction? These questions must be answered before production — not after the first incident. Build governance into the CI/CD pipeline so it's automated, not a manual approval bottleneck.
Gap 3: Operational Ownership
Pilots are run by project teams. Production needs operational owners — people responsible for monitoring, incident response, and continuous improvement. Without clear ownership, production AI systems degrade silently until someone notices a problem. Assign ownership before deployment, not after the first incident.
A Framework for Production Readiness
Before promoting any pilot to production: (1) Run on production data for 2 weeks. (2) Define and automate evaluation metrics. (3) Establish governance controls in CI/CD. (4) Assign operational owner and on-call rotation. (5) Create rollback plan. If any of these are missing, you're not ready.
Key Takeaways
- Gap 1: Data Reality vs Pilot Data
- Gap 2: Governance and Compliance
- Gap 3: Operational Ownership
- A Framework for Production Readiness
Conclusion
Before promoting any pilot to production: (1) Run on production data for 2 weeks. (2) Define and automate evaluation metrics. (3) Establish governance controls in CI/CD. (4) Assign operational owner a...
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