Case studies
AI demo that failed in production
Professional services firm
A team deployed an AI document workflow that worked in demos but produced unreliable outputs — rebuilt for auditability, anonymized example.
Problem
An AI tool classified incoming documents in demos. In production it mislabeled files, had no audit trail, and staff re-checked everything manually anyway.
What changed
- Mapped real edge cases the demo never covered
- Added validation steps and human review for low-confidence outputs
- Logged inputs and outputs so mistakes could be traced
- Simplified the workflow to fewer moving parts
Result
Manual rework dropped sharply. Leadership trusted the workflow enough to expand it to a second document type.