Free Lesson
The Month-13 Problem: Why Your AI Project Died After Go-Live
Part of The Five Dysfuntions of AI Transformation
30 min
Sep 28, 2026 1:30 PM
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What you'll learn
Spot the Project Mindset Before It Kills Value
Recognize the warning signs that an AI initiative is scoped as a project with an end date — and what each one costs you.
Ask the Four Ownership Questions
The questions that expose who owns the model in month 13: retraining triggers, data SLAs, and the vendor-exit scenario.
Run a Model Health Review
Turn model maintenance from a post-mortem into a recurring operational meeting, with a simple standing agenda.
Why this topic matters
Most AI initiatives don't die in the strategy room — they die in production, months after go-live, when the team has moved on and nobody owns retraining. Gartner finds models fail for lack of operational structures, not bad algorithms. It is Dysfunction 4 — the Project-Not-Product Mindset — the most common death zone. Run AI as a project with an end date and failure is scheduled. This lesson shows you how to cancel it.
