Pilot purgatory is the state of an AI programme that repeatedly proves value in small trials but never reaches production. It is usually caused by the absence of an owner, a governance route to approval, or a plan for the change in work that scaling would require.
Why it matters for a UK business
It is the standard failure of the last three years. The pilot works well enough not to kill and not well enough to scale, and it runs on indefinitely because nobody agreed in advance what result would justify going further.
What it looks like in practice
Six months in, the pilot is still a pilot. The team that built it has moved on. The people it was meant for have gone back to the old way. Nobody can say whether it succeeded because nobody wrote down what success was.
What to do about it
Before anything is built, write down two numbers with a date: the result that means go further, and the result that means stop. That single discipline separates a pilot from purgatory more reliably than any technology choice.
Related terms
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From pilot paralysis to production → · All 22 terms in the glossary · The resource library
If this is the term that has come up in your business and you want it worked through against your own situation rather than in the abstract, that is a conversation, not a page.
Speak to ChrisWritten by Chris Duffy. Last reviewed .
