The $2.5 Trillion Question: Why 95% of Enterprise AI Pilots Fail (and How Supply Chains Beat the Odds)

Sushanth Raman, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based supply chain AI company Pallet, delivers a conference keynote tackling the central paradox of the enterprise AI boom: despite a projected $2.5 trillion in AI spending in 2026, an MIT study finds 95% of enterprise AI pilots fail. Raman argues the failures stem not from weak frontier models but from messy real-world deployments, uncaptured tribal knowledge, legacy integrations, and poor change management. He offers a three-part framework for evaluating AI vendors, explains why building in-house is harder than it looks, and presents three case studies (Lineage, Prism Logistics, and Mallory Alexander) where Pallet drove millions in savings and 99%+ accuracy on tasks like customs filing.