The Coming Wave of AI Cleanup Projects in 2026: Why Every Leader Needs a Plan for Fixing Yesterday’s AI Mistakes
For three years, AI went from a talking point to a reckless boardroom obsession. Leaders bypassed caution, fast-tracking budgets to launch pilot projects before anyone verified organizational readiness. That enthusiasm created massive, unacknowledged debt.
Now, as we close out 2025, the reckoning is here: models are failing due to messy data, compliance risks are escalating, and systems built for scale are collapsing due to weak foundations.
This is enterprise AI’s essential maturity moment. Our thesis is that cleanup is the action that separates the future winners from the laggards. The wave of AI cleanup projects defining late 2025 into 2026 will require organizations to shed the chaos and finally achieve the measurable, credible ROI that the initial rush failed to deliver.