AI Without Illusions: A Manager's Field Guide to Implementing in the Organization

Most AI projects fail. Not for the reasons you've been told.About 95% of enterprise AI pilots deliver no measurable impact on the bottom line - despite tens of billions spent (MIT, 2025). The cause is almost never the technology. It's a series of comfortable management illusions that sound like good judgment right up until the budget arrives.AI Without Illusions is the field guide for the manager who has to make these decisions and answer for them - not the technologist, and not the futurist. It refuses both the hype ("AI changes everything") and the cynicism ("AI is a bubble"), and does something more useful: it gives you the arithmetic, the criteria, and the working tools to implement AI without setting money on fire.Inside- The Loaded-Cost Test - is AI really cheaper, once you price the reviewer, the rework, and a vendor price hike?- A ten-point feasibility scorecard and a four-point readiness check - know before you build, not after- A clear decision path: RAG vs. fine-tuning, cloud vs. self-hosting- A 90-day roadmap, plus copy-ready worksheets, a risk register, and budget modelsNo illusions. Just the disciplines that survive contact with a budget.For managers, directors, and executives who've been told to "do something with AI" - and intend to do it without the wishful thinking.