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Beyond Pilot Purgatory: How Winners Scale AI

Shazrul Asari, Partner, Bain & Company | Dhruva Murugasu, Partners, Bain & Company

17-Dec-25 12:00

Beyond Pilot Purgatory: How Winners Scale AI

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:  technologyCorporatesmanaging

Tags:  artificial intelligencedigital transformationagentic aiBain & Companycorporate strategy





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