Most AI initiatives fail because organizations rush to what before agreeing on why. If you’ve ever seen a team rush into AI tools, pilots, or use cases without alignment, you’ve already seen the problem. They skipped Phase Zero. Starting AI without Phase Zero is like putting the cart before the horse. You may move, but not in the direction you think—and not for long.
Phase Zero is not about use cases. It is not about vendors. It is not even about the problem statement. Phase Zero is about why the organization wants AI in the first place.
Most teams start with questions like: “What can AI automate?” “What tools should we buy?” “What problem should we apply AI to?” Those are execution questions. They are premature. The first question should always be: Why do we want AI at all? And the answer is rarely just one thing. Common legitimate “whys” include:
Here’s the part most organizations miss: The “why” can change. You do not need weeks of workshops to define it. You do need honesty and alignment. And the “why” is not the same at every level. The CEO’s why might be market positioning. A department head’s why might be throughput. A frontline employee’s why might be fewer manual steps. If those whys are not visible and reconciled early, AI initiatives drift, stall, or quietly die.
Phase Zero exists to surface and align those motivations before technology enters the conversation. Not to slow things down. But to prevent waste. On Wednesday, New Years Eve, I’ll break down why Phase Zero is about strategic intent, not problem statements or use cases—and why that distinction matters more than most teams realize.
Category: Blog – LinkedIn Article
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