$10M/Year on AI — And Most of It Still Funds Applause, Not Outcomes

The average enterprise AI budget in 2025 is $10 million. The money's finally moving — permanent budgets, 11x more models in production, GenAI spend shifting from "experimental" to "infrastructure." But inside individual companies, the gap between leaders and laggards is becoming a canyon. Most C-suites still run AI like a science fair with executive judges. Your innovation lab might have the same ROI as a gym membership — technically active, functionally decorative. In this episode, we unpack the one question separating companies that recover millions from those running 14 beautiful pilots with zero P&L impact. Plus: the CAP Test — a framework you can steal and use in your very next review. The VPs who win the next 18 months won't collect the most pilots. They'll kill the most beloved projects that can't move a number.