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The widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies is marked by a profound paradox: unprecedented investment coupled with alarmingly high project failure rates. While AI is viewed as a strategic imperative, a staggering 70-85% of AI projects fail to deliver expected outcomes, significantly higher than traditional IT project failure rates. This pervasive failure translates into massive financial losses, exemplified by cases like IBM Watson for Oncology's $4 billion loss and Zillow's $304 million write-downs.

This briefing, synthesizing insights from over 100 sources including Gartner, Forrester, McKinsey, RAND Corporation, and KPMG, attributes the vast majority of these failures—an estimated 75-85%—to internal organizational shortcomings. An additional 10-20% of failures stem from the organization's inability to effectively manage the vendor lifecycle, an internal process. This leaves fewer than 5% of failures attributable purely to uncontrollable, external vendor-side issues.

The overwhelming conclusion is that the success or failure of an AI initiative is predominantly determined by the maturity and readiness of the implementing organization itself, emphasizing the need for a fundamental shift in approach from chasing hype to fortifying internal foundations and strategically managing partnerships.