OpenAI is launching the OpenAI Deployment Company, a new entity designed to help organizations systematically implement AI. The company is starting with more than $4 billion in capital. As part of the launch, OpenAI is also acquiring Tomoro, an applied AI consulting firm with experience in mission-critical implementations. Tomoro brings approximately 150 engineers who are immediately deployable within the Deployment Company.
Estefania Angel noticed that while her company helped other enterprises set up AI, it did not use those systems internally. She began using AI apps in Slack, Outlook, and Google to track assignments, which garnered attention from her superiors.
Surveys suggest customers want to use AI for shopping and to see AI tools from retailers. In a CI&T survey conducted in 2025, 58% of 1,040 U.S. consumers said retailers should use AI to improve the shopping experience, and almost 75% said they were already using AI tools at least occasionally in their path to purchase. In a separate survey from Gartner last March, 56% of millennials said they would be willing to let AI handle or assist with some of their shopping tasks.
As 2026 begins, many organizations are launching AI transformation initiatives. The new year brings with it fresh budgets, renewed strategic focus, and mounting pressure to capture value from artificial intelligence. Yet studies consistently show that most AI projects fail to generate meaningful returns. Companies pour resources into promising experiments that never scale, accumulate tools that are never integrated, and watch initial enthusiasm curdle into skepticism.
The question for the coming year, then, is no longer whether AI will transform your organization, it's whether your leadership team will guide that transformation thoughtfully or let it happen haphazardly, tool by tool and team by team. I have spent much of the past year working with my research team and industry partners to think through the most pressing challenges organizations face as they implement AI at scale. Drawing on this work, I have identified seven key priorities for leaders preparing for 2026.
The new program - which forms part of the company's Destination AI enablement framework - offers a three-phase pathway oriented around discovery, scoring, and activation. Partners work with customers to identify pain points across their organizations, with use cases then scored and prioritized based on factors such as feasibility, impact, and strategic alignment. The workshop then concludes with a shortlist of two to three high-value AI initiatives and a tailored 90-day roadmap for implementation.
A MIT study last year showed that 95 percent of generative AI implementations fail. They generate little to no business value. There can be various reasons for this. Think of poor integration, little focus on solving real problems, and unrealistic expectations. As far as Appian CEO Matt Calkins is concerned, this is an absurd percentage for something that is seen as the breakthrough technology of this generation.
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