Overcoming the Two Failure Modes of GenAI — and Turning Them Into Revenue in Enterprise Sales

Executive Summary

McKinsey identifies two main failure modes sinking Generative AI (GenAI) programs: (1) failure to innovate at pace, and (2) failure to scale promising pilots. Enterprise Sales leaders face similar barriers—siloed data, fragile CRM integrations, low trust, and the so-called 'pilot graveyard.' The remedy is a platform approach: reusable patterns, self-service portals, and automated guardrails. This blog synthesizes McKinsey’s insights with enterprise sales realities, offering a 90/180/365-day roadmap and KPIs to guide implementation.

1. What McKinsey Says Is Sinking GenAI Programs

McKinsey’s analysis reveals two recurring problems:

• Failure to innovate at pace — Teams waste 30–50% of their innovation time on compliance and duplicative experiments.

• Failure to scale from pilots — Risk, security, and cost concerns handled case-by-case prevent good demos from becoming production-grade apps.

The solution is platformization: self-service portals, open modular architecture, and AI gateways enforcing policy-as-code and auditability.

2. Translating Insights into Enterprise Sales

When applied to enterprise sales, McKinsey’s framework aligns with key AI use cases across Go-to-Market, Sales Enablement, Sales Process, and Account Planning.

Examples include:

• GTM: ICP targeting and whitespace analysis supported by reusable data products.

• Sales Enablement: Coaching and proposal generation powered by prompt libraries and policy checks.

• Sales Process: Automated logging and pipeline monitoring backed by AI gateways.

• Account Planning: Expansion strategies driven by GraphRAG and account insights assistants.

3. KPI Scorecard

4. Roadmap for Sales Leaders

0–90 Days:

• Stand up an AI gateway and publish prompt libraries.

• Pilot Rep Co-Pilot and Account Insights Assistant.

• Target: Reduce CRM manual entry by 25% and improve selling time by +10pp.

90–180 Days:

• Launch self-service portal v1 for reuse.

• Expand pilots to GTM and Enablement.

• Publish a Sales GenAI scorecard tracking reuse, time-to-sandbox, approvals SLA.

6–12 Months:

• Scale to 6–10 agentic apps across Sales.

• Embed GenAI in QBRs and deal reviews.

• Establish product-level unit economics (e.g., $ per incremental meeting booked).

References

McKinsey & Company (2025). Overcoming two issues that are sinking GenAI programs.

Boston Consulting Group (2024). Stairway to GenAI Impact.

Salesforce (2023). State of Sales Report.

McKinsey Global AI Survey (2025). Adoption and scaling trends in AI.

Cagle Consulting Partners works with Global Sales and Consulting leaders to develop a practical approach to unlocking the potential of AI, at scale, within Enterprise Go to Market and Sales efforts.