Pradeep Dahiya
Founder and Architect, ScotiTech Solutions Limited
Most AI pilots fail for one of two reasons. The first is that they were scoped so narrowly that they proved nothing anyone cared about. The second is that they tried to boil the ocean and ran out of political runway before shipping anything. This guide is the pilot template we use to avoid both.
What a pilot is actually testing
A pilot is not testing whether the LLM is impressive. That question was settled in 2023. A pilot is testing three specific things: whether the workflow you picked is a real fit for AI assistance, whether your infrastructure and security processes can absorb the deployment, and whether your users adopt it once it is in front of them.
Choosing the pilot use case
The right pilot use case has three properties: it is painful today, it has a clear success signal, and it is contained enough that the pilot cannot become a company-wide programme by accident.
- Painful today — measured in hours per week, not "would be nice to have".
- Clear success signal — did the user use it? Did they use it a second time? Did the output land?
- Contained scope — one team, one workflow, one document set. Expansion comes after the pilot succeeds.
Sizing the initial deployment
A pilot does not need a production topology. Aim for the smallest environment that produces a real answer — usually a single-node deployment with the customer identity provider integrated, one document source connected, and audit logging landing where the security team can see it.
Success criteria
Success criteria are agreed with the customer sponsor before the pilot starts. They are specific, and they distinguish "worth expanding" from "not worth expanding".
- Adoption target: a defined proportion of the pilot user group actively using the product weekly.
- Workflow signal: measurable improvement on the workflow the pilot picked.
- Trust signal: security and operations teams comfortable with the deployment as observed.
Timeline template
A four-to-six-week pilot fits most environments. The shape looks like this:
- Week 0 — Discovery session, deployment scoping, success criteria agreed.
- Week 1 — Environment stood up, identity integrated, first source connected.
- Week 2 — First user group onboarded, feedback loop opened.
- Weeks 3–4 — Iteration on the pilot use case, additional sources connected.
- Weeks 5–6 — Success criteria evaluated, expansion plan drafted or pilot wound down.
Common pitfalls
Three pitfalls kill more pilots than any technical issue:
- Scope creep during the pilot — protect the pilot use case; log new requests for the expansion phase.
- No named executive sponsor — pilots without air cover stall at week three.
- Success criteria that only the vendor cares about — the criteria have to matter to the customer’s programme owner, or the pilot outcome is meaningless internally.