The budget line that tells you whether an AI project is real
If nobody can name the line it comes out of, it isn't a project yet.
There’s one question I ask before I believe an AI project exists: which budget line does it come out of? Not who sponsors it, not who is excited about it. Which line.
If the answer is innovation, discretionary, or “we’re finding it,” the project is a hobby with a calendar invite. Nothing is being traded away for it, so nothing is being decided.
The last four of these I watched up close, the ones that shipped all came out of a line that already had a job — a team’s software budget, a vendor renewal somebody chose not to sign. Someone gave something up. That’s what made the deadline real.
So when a team tells me they’re piloting something, I ask what got cut to pay for it. If the answer is nothing, I know how the story ends, and roughly when.
“A project nobody paid for is a project nobody has to finish.”
It’s a rude question. It saves months.