Beyond Pilot Purgatory: How Winners Scale AI
Shazrul Asari, Partner, Bain & Company | Dhruva Murugasu, Partners, Bain & Company
17-Dec-25 12:00
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General Managers must own AI, not CIOs or CTOs. A new report from Bain & Company reveals a sharp divide: while most companies are stuck in "pilot purgatory," a small group of AI leaders are securing 10–25% gains in EBITDA. The difference isn't the software, it's the strategy.
Shazrul Asari and Dhruva Murugasu, Partners at Bain & Company, join us to explain why scaling AI requires a fundamental business transformation rather than just "sprinkling AI on top" (like adding extra sambal to Nasi Lemak). We explore why plugging AI into old workflows is like driving a supercar in a traffic jam, and why the rise of "Agentic AI" demands a total rethink of the organisational chart.
We discuss:
The Divide: Why leaders achieve scale while others get stuck in sheltered pilots.
Workflow Redesign: Why you must decommission old processes, not just layer AI on top.
Agentic AI: The structural shift from "digital helpers" to "digital workers" that act autonomously.
The Talent Trap: How to prevent the "hollowing out" of junior roles via augmented apprenticeships.
CEO Advice: Why momentum matters more than perfection in the race to scale.
Produced by: Roshan Kanesan
Presented by: Roshan Kanesan
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Categories: technology, Corporates, managing
Tags: artificial intelligence, digital transformation, agentic ai, Bain & Company, corporate strategy,
