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Why Most AI Deployments Fail (And How to Fix the Sequence) | Go Beyond the Connection with ChaChi Gallo
ChaChi Gallo, Vice President of Information Technology at Michels Corporation, joins host Steve MacDonald to explain what it actually takes to build a digital job site -- and why most organizations get the sequence wrong.
Michels is a Wisconsin-based infrastructure contractor building the foundational systems that power modern construction: fiber networks, energy infrastructure, and some of the largest data center projects underway in the country. ChaChi leads IT strategy across an environment that is distributed, unpredictable, and operationally demanding in ways that most enterprise IT frameworks were never designed to handle.
In this conversation, ChaChi makes the case that AI readiness is a construction project, not a software rollout. Before tools can deliver value, organizations need trusted data, governed processes, and connectivity that works in real job site conditions -- not ideal ones. He traces the 60 to 70 percent failure rate on AI deployments directly to sequencing: the data foundation comes last, not first, and everything built on top of it reflects that instability.
He also shares a practical lesson from visiting an AWS distribution center that reframed his team's assumptions about 5G, explains why satellite connectivity changed operations for Michels in ways that cellular never could, and draws a clear line between the kind of automation that belongs on a job site today and the kind that does not yet belong there at all.
His closing thought is the one that stays with you: technology is easy. It is the people who are hard.
Topics covered include building a data foundation for AI, why AI deployments fail, satellite connectivity for remote construction sites, autonomous networks and human oversight, wireless strategy for field operations, and IT leadership in relationship-driven industries.
- AI deployments fail when the data foundation is built last, not first
- Satellite connectivity is a genuine operational breakthrough for remote construction sites
- 5G is a tertiary backup in even the most sophisticated distribution environments -- not a Wi-Fi replacement
- Autonomous equipment belongs where conditions are controlled; human oversight is required everywhere else
- Technology is easy -- relationships and operational presence determine whether digital initiatives succeed
"Just like you have to get a permit to do construction work, you have to go through cyber and risk to make sure that this product is okay for us to use. We have to do the same checks and balances that we do for our customers." - ChaChi Gallo, Vice President of Information Technology, Michels Corporation
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Michaels Corporation
- Milwaukee PC
- Generac
- Oracle
- OpenAI
- Caterpillar
- Komatsu
- AWS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IThc0C7zdMw
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By Bigleaf NetworksChaChi Gallo, Vice President of Information Technology at Michels Corporation, joins host Steve MacDonald to explain what it actually takes to build a digital job site -- and why most organizations get the sequence wrong.
Michels is a Wisconsin-based infrastructure contractor building the foundational systems that power modern construction: fiber networks, energy infrastructure, and some of the largest data center projects underway in the country. ChaChi leads IT strategy across an environment that is distributed, unpredictable, and operationally demanding in ways that most enterprise IT frameworks were never designed to handle.
In this conversation, ChaChi makes the case that AI readiness is a construction project, not a software rollout. Before tools can deliver value, organizations need trusted data, governed processes, and connectivity that works in real job site conditions -- not ideal ones. He traces the 60 to 70 percent failure rate on AI deployments directly to sequencing: the data foundation comes last, not first, and everything built on top of it reflects that instability.
He also shares a practical lesson from visiting an AWS distribution center that reframed his team's assumptions about 5G, explains why satellite connectivity changed operations for Michels in ways that cellular never could, and draws a clear line between the kind of automation that belongs on a job site today and the kind that does not yet belong there at all.
His closing thought is the one that stays with you: technology is easy. It is the people who are hard.
Topics covered include building a data foundation for AI, why AI deployments fail, satellite connectivity for remote construction sites, autonomous networks and human oversight, wireless strategy for field operations, and IT leadership in relationship-driven industries.
- AI deployments fail when the data foundation is built last, not first
- Satellite connectivity is a genuine operational breakthrough for remote construction sites
- 5G is a tertiary backup in even the most sophisticated distribution environments -- not a Wi-Fi replacement
- Autonomous equipment belongs where conditions are controlled; human oversight is required everywhere else
- Technology is easy -- relationships and operational presence determine whether digital initiatives succeed
"Just like you have to get a permit to do construction work, you have to go through cyber and risk to make sure that this product is okay for us to use. We have to do the same checks and balances that we do for our customers." - ChaChi Gallo, Vice President of Information Technology, Michels Corporation
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Michaels Corporation
- Milwaukee PC
- Generac
- Oracle
- OpenAI
- Caterpillar
- Komatsu
- AWS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IThc0C7zdMw