# Chris Taudien — AI Pilot-to-Production Specialist > Full version with FAQs, testimonials, case studies, and article summaries: [llms-full.txt](https://christaudien.me/llms-full.txt) > Your AI pilot works. It's not in production. ## About Chris Taudien is an AI Pilot-to-Production Specialist based in Palermo, Italy, serving European industrials (DACH & Nordic manufacturers). I help European industrials move AI from pilot to production — not by building models, but by leading the cross-functional alignment that gets good models unstuck. 15+ years of change leadership at Volvo, Polestar, SKF, and Apple. No juniors, no handoffs — I show up and do the work. ## Pain Points I Solve - **AI Pilot Purgatory**: 80% of enterprise AI pilots never reach production. You have promising PoCs sitting in labs with no path to deployment. - **Unclear Ownership**: AI projects stall because no one owns the cross-functional coordination between data teams, IT, operations, and vendors. - **IT Blockers**: Security reviews, integration approvals, and infrastructure decisions that delay deployment by months. - **No Executive Alignment**: VP Ops wants speed, CIO wants security, CFO wants ROI proof — and no one is bridging the gap. - **Unmeasured ROI**: Pilots run without business KPIs, so leadership can't justify scaling. - **Vendor Hype vs Reality**: External AI vendors oversell capabilities. You need someone technical enough to separate signal from noise. - **Shadow AI Risk**: Teams adopting AI tools without governance, creating security and compliance exposure. - **Stuck Projects**: Critical technical initiatives that have lost momentum and need rescue within 30 days. ## Services ### TRACTION — €15,000 · 4 weeks · On-site I unblock a specific AI initiative. Confidential 1:1 interviews, pilot scoring (impact × feasibility × sponsorship), blocker mapping with named owners, go/no-go recommendation. If I can fix it during the four weeks, I fix it. The report covers what's left. - [See details](https://christaudien.me/pricing#traction) ### EMBEDDED — €35,000–50,000 · From 3 months · Starts on-site I work alongside your team to move an AI initiative from pilot to production. I run the conversations that stall internally, sit in the room when the hard trade-offs happen, and clear what's in your team's way. Your people keep their roles. - [See details](https://christaudien.me/pricing#embedded) ### What I Don't Do I don't build AI models, do data engineering, run code/architecture reviews, write multi-month project plans, or replace your team leads. You pay for momentum, not methodology. ## Key Pages - [Homepage](https://christaudien.me) - [How I Work (Pricing)](https://christaudien.me/pricing) - [AI Implementation](https://christaudien.me/ai-implementation) - [Enterprise AI Landscape](https://christaudien.me/ai-landscape) - [AI Consulting Europe](https://christaudien.me/fractional-cto-europe) - [Interim AI Execution Lead](https://christaudien.me/interim-cto) - [Stuck Project Rescue](https://christaudien.me/stuck-project) - [Insights / Articles](https://christaudien.me/insights) - [Polestar Case Study](https://christaudien.me/case-study/polestar) ## Articles - [EU AI Act Compliance Won't Save You — Organizational Readiness Will](https://christaudien.me/insights/eu-ai-act-compliance) - [Your PE Portfolio Company Bought AI Tools. Now What?](https://christaudien.me/insights/pe-portfolio-ai) - [Industrial AI Pacesetters Are Leaving Everyone Behind](https://christaudien.me/insights/industrial-ai-pacesetters) - [Agentic AI in Manufacturing: Why the Next Wave Requires Human Leadership](https://christaudien.me/insights/agentic-ai-manufacturing) - [OpenAI's COO Just Confirmed What I've Been Saying: Enterprise AI Hasn't Penetrated](https://christaudien.me/insights/openai-enterprise-penetration) - [How Much Does an AI Implementation Consultant Cost in 2026?](https://christaudien.me/insights/ai-implementation-costs-2026) - [Shadow AI Is Already Here — Your Governance Policy Just Doesn't Know It](https://christaudien.me/insights/shadow-ai) - [Sweden Scored 68% on Worker Wellbeing — Now Add AI Transformation](https://christaudien.me/insights/sweden-wellbeing-ai) - [The €500k Question That Gets Skipped](https://christaudien.me/insights/the-500k-question) - [The 12-Week Benchmark: What Pilot-to-Production Actually Looks Like](https://christaudien.me/insights/12-week-benchmark) - [Why AI Certificates Won't Fix Pilot Purgatory](https://christaudien.me/insights/ai-certificates) - [The AI Confidence Collapse: Adoption Up 13%, Trust Down 18%](https://christaudien.me/insights/ai-confidence-collapse) - [Nearly Half of Enterprise AI Projects Fail — Here's the Pattern](https://christaudien.me/insights/ai-failure-pattern) - [From Pilot to Production: The AI Implementation Playbook](https://christaudien.me/insights/ai-playbook) - [If You Can't Answer These 4 Questions, You Don't Have Governance](https://christaudien.me/insights/governance-4-questions) - [Your Engineers Don't Need More AI Tools — They Need Better Leadership](https://christaudien.me/insights/engineers-need-leadership) - [The Italian AI Market Is Booming — But Pilots Are Still Dying](https://christaudien.me/insights/italian-ai-boom) - [90% of Your IT Team Uses AI Daily — How Many Use Approved Tools?](https://christaudien.me/insights/shadow-ai-governance) - [64% Are Job Hugging — Your AI Rollout Hit a Wall](https://christaudien.me/insights/job-hugging) - [Pilot Purgatory: Why Your AI Pilots Fail (It's Not the Model)](https://christaudien.me/insights/pilot-purgatory) - [I Built an AI-Native Workflow for Myself. Here's What I'd Build for Your Team.](https://christaudien.me/insights/ai-native-team-workflow) - [AI Implementation: Consultant vs Interim Leader vs Full-Time Hire](https://christaudien.me/insights/fractional-cto-vs-interim-cto) ## Contact - Email: hello@christaudien.me - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christoffertaudien/ - X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisTaudien - GitHub: https://github.com/christoffffer - [Book a Discovery Call](https://christaudien.me/pricing)