The technical work was the short part. In every rollout that stalled, the cause was a person who had not been given a reason to trust the output.
Trust is earned per user, not per org
Pilot approval does not transfer. Each team re-runs the same scepticism, and each team needs to see the tool get a familiar case right before it gets a novel one.
Adoption is a cultural problem wearing a technical costume.
Show the working
Systems that surface their reasoning get adopted faster than more accurate systems that do not. This is not irrational: an explanation is what lets a reviewer catch the error you have not anticipated.
Keep a visible off-switch
Teams adopt faster when they know they can stop. The off-switch is almost never used, and it is almost always the reason they started.
Measure the second quarter
First-quarter usage measures novelty. Whether the tool is still open in month seven is the only number that has predicted a durable rollout for us.
