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Industrial AI readiness review: find the AI projects that add value, and avoid the ones that get abandoned

AI spending is forecast to reach $2.7 trillion in 20261, yet at least half of generative AI projects were abandoned after proof of concept, for poor data, weak risk controls, rising costs or unclear value2. The goal of an industrial AI readiness review is to identify the automation and AI projects that add value and to avoid projects that end up abandoned, at every level of autonomy from operator assistance, as at Nigeria's Dangote refinery, to full autonomy. It starts on your site. I review your operations: where performance is lost, which of those losses automation and AI can recover at each level of autonomy, and what your management system has to change for that to happen safely. You receive a ranked plan: the AI and automation projects worth targeting first, and the changes to your own management system that go with them.

Typical warning signs:

What does the review look at?

  • Operations: production and reliability against capacity, losses, the control room, maintenance and inspection.
  • Automation and data already in place: the control system, advanced control, historians, and the AI tools in use, approved or not.
  • The management system, through its whole cycle from planning to audit and improvement, and whether it is applied by the people who run the plant.
  • People and organisation: roles, competence and how decisions are made.

Each unit is placed on the XO levels of autonomy, and every finding is weighed against your own aims for safety, reliability, production and cost.

How does the review work?

  1. No commitment, within 48 hoursInitial conversation

    You describe your site and your question. I tell you whether and how I can help.

  2. Free of charge, within a weekScoping

    We agree what site management expects, the indicators that matter (safety, reliability, production, cost), the units in scope and the approach. Within a week you receive a scoping note, a proposal and a quote for the review.

  3. Quoted, 2 to 5 days on siteOperations review

    A review focused on the issues and indicators agreed at scoping, on documents (production and reliability data, the management system, incident reports, the AI and automation in use, the organisation) and in the field (units, control room, interviews from operator to site manager), with a debrief of the provisional findings before I leave.

    Within two weeks you receive a report setting out each loss and each opportunity against those indicators: where automation and AI would pay off, the level of autonomy of each unit, and the management system gaps to close first, with proposed actions and priorities.

  4. Case by case, within two weeksStrategy session and action plan

    Starting from the findings, we set the priorities and an action plan ranked by expected benefit and the resources available, with owners, built into your existing procedures and organisation.

  5. SupportAdvice and coaching during implementation

    I work with your teams while the plan is carried out, and coach your managers for as long as your organisation needs.

  6. At the end of the planClose-out and review

    We check together that the gaps are closed and the actions were closed out as intended, and measure the effect on your indicators.

Timings are indicative and adjusted to the size of the site and the scope.

To book a free scoping call, use the contact form. For the management system side, see the one-day briefing.

Sources

Accessed 27 October 2026:

  1. Gartner, September 2026
  2. Gartner, January 2026

Updated .