AI pilots succeed or fail long before a model is selected. They succeed when a leadership team can answer three questions clearly: what decision will this change, who is accountable for that decision today, and what would 'good' look like six months in.
We recommend starting with a one-page charter. Name the decision. Name the owner. Name the success metric. Anything that can't fit on a page is too vague to pilot.
Once you have the charter, build a small cross-functional cohort: a program owner, a data steward, a legal/privacy reviewer, and a community-facing representative. This cohort is the governance body for the pilot. It meets weekly, owns risks, and signs off on every model change.
Finally, design the off-ramp before the on-ramp. Document the exact conditions under which you would pause the pilot — bias signals, accuracy thresholds, community feedback. A pilot you can stop is a pilot you can responsibly run.