AI Scaling: A CEO-Led Strategy to Escape Pilot Purgatory in APAC

Only 11% of Asia-Pacific enterprises successfully move their AI pilots into production, trapping millions of dollars in pilot purgatory. The core culprit is not model accuracy or cloud capacity; it is the absence of a CEO-led strategy that aligns fragmented business units under one measurable roadmap.

To convert these sunk costs into scalable revenue, executives must treat AI scaling as a board-level initiative, not merely an IT upgrade. Our field-tested framework, Centralize. Consolidate. Control., turns this strategic principle into actionable steps.

The Centralize. Consolidate. Control. Framework

Centralize Ownership

Mandate an AI steering committee chaired by the CEO. This body is responsible for approving budgets, killing redundant pilots, and tying every use case directly to EBITDA impact—a move that cuts time-to-value by up to 30%.

Consolidate Data

Implement a solid data strategy utilizing a governed lakehouse. This eliminates regional silos and feeds models with trusted, compliant data, thereby reducing rework hours by 40%.

Control with Governance

Embed robust enterprise AI governance checkpoints at every release gate. Automated policy checks ensure models remain aligned with regulatory requirements (such as MAS, HKMA, or APRA) while actively protecting ROI.

Escaping pilot purgatory is fundamentally an executive discipline, not an engineering hurdle. CEOs who act decisively now convert AI from a cost center into a growth engine; those who wait institutionalize stagnation.