Hemang Upadhyay: Why Your AI Pilot Will Never See Production

Most AI projects don't fail because the technology is wrong — they fail because nobody agreed on what success looks like before the pilot started. Hemang Upadhyay has spent 16 years watching that pattern repeat, and he's built a framework to stop it. In this episode: • Why Gartner's stat — only 5% of AI initiatives reach production — is a leadership problem disguised as a technology problem • The three measurement layers every AI deployment needs: quality, operational performance, and business impact • How to establish governance, ownership, and cross-functional alignment before a single model is selected • What production-ready AI actually means in practice — and why a successful demo in a conference room proves almost nothing Hemang Upadhyay is an enterprise product and AI leader with 16 years of experience spanning enterprise AI, digital commerce, product data governance, and AI-enabled customer experience. He is a TED Talk speaker, published researcher, and active open-source contributor who mentors startups and helps small and mid-sized businesses adopt AI responsibly. He shares his frameworks and thinking independently at hemangai.com. Connect with Hemang Upadhyay: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemangupadhyay Website: https://www.hemangai.com Subscribe: https://localization-fireside-chat.simplecast.com/ CreditsHost: Robin Ayoub, Founder, Localization Fireside ChatConnect and watch moreWebsite: www.L10NFiresideChat.comSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5OoURgc29R31XPGzOWL9iXBe a guest: https://calendly.com/robin-ayoub/localization-fireside-chat-podcast-recordingLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinayoub/Support the showShare the episode with a friend. Subscribe on YouTube and Spotify. Leave a short review.DisclaimerViews are for education and discussion. Apply judgment in your own context.Tags#L10NFiresideChat #localization #hiring #recruiting #leadership #ai Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.