AI Platform Consolidation: Escape Pilot Purgatory with a Horizontal Enterprise Strategy

In 2025, artificial intelligence is no longer a science experiment—it is the profit engine of APAC enterprises. Yet, 78% of regional banks and manufacturers still run ten or more disconnected AI pilots, and none are in production. This failure stems from treating AI as a collection of tools rather than a strategic capability. PwC’s 2025 APAC AI Survey confirms this fragmentation drains budgets, duplicates data pipelines, and blocks scalable ROI.

The escape route is singular: Centralize. Consolidate. Control. This article delivers the Consolidate playbook—a pragmatic roadmap designed to turn siloed experiments into a horizontal AI platform that pays for itself within two quarters.

The Case for a Horizontal AI Platform

Consolidation is the deliberate shift from funding disparate vertical projects to investing in one enterprise-grade AI platform. Think of it as a shared utility: one ingestion layer, one model registry, one security envelope, and one deployment pipeline. Business units plug in; they don’t build from scratch.

Immediate, Compounding Returns

Eliminate redundancy – Collect data once, serve many models. PwC 2025 predictions show a 30% cost reduction within six months.
Ship services in weeks, not months – Reusable components and pre-approved governance cut delivery cycles by 60%.
Automate IT operations – Standardized ML lifecycles enable self-healing workloads (IT Autonomics), freeing 25% of engineer hours for innovation.

4-Step Pragmatic Roadmap to Consolidation

1. Audit & Centralize

Catalog every live or planned AI initiative. Map duplicate data sets, overlapping vendors, and regulatory exposure. This visibility is the fuel for the Centralize pillar, providing the necessary data to rationalize investments.

2. Architect the MVP Platform

Design a Minimum Viable Platform (MVP) that solves the three highest-common-denominator needs across the enterprise:

Unified data access layer with region-local residency (critical for APAC compliance)
Standardized model deployment pipeline with blue-green releases
Built-in audit trail for PDPA, GDPR, and China PIPL

3. Execute a Phased Rollout

Pick one high-impact business unit—typically customer service or supply-chain analytics. Migrate its top two AI services onto the MVP platform within 90 days. Publicize the ROI achieved; momentum beats perfection.

4. Govern & Control

Establish an AI Center of Excellence (CoE) with teeth: approve every new model, enforce cost-allocation chargebacks, and publish quarterly risk dashboards. This Control pillar locks in long-term value and prevents future fragmentation.

Consolidation is not merely an IT project—it is a board-level transformation. Execute these four steps and you move from scattered pilots to a single, strategic AI capability that compounds competitive advantage quarter after quarter.