I audited an award-winning AI project. The case study left out the cloud bill

I have audited enough celebrated technology rollouts to notice a quiet omission across the industry: nobody talks much about what happens to the unit economics once the pilot ends and the software enters daily production. I have anonymized the company and changed identifying details for confidentiality, but the operating economics and workflow behaviors below are taken directly from the post-implementation audit. About six months ago, I was brought into a mid-sized enterprise to review a documen