Why Most AI Roadmaps Never Survive Contact with Legacy Systems

Most AI roadmaps are written as if the organization's tech stack is a greenfield playground. In reality, the average mid-market company runs on a patchwork of ERP modules, custom scripts, and SaaS tools that nobody fully documented.

Integration debt is the real blocker — not model quality. We've seen teams spend six figures on fine-tuning while their core workflow still requires a human to copy-paste between three systems. The AI layer can't fix what the plumbing never connected.

A useful roadmap starts with a workflow audit: map every handoff, every manual step, every API that doesn't exist yet. Automate the plumbing first. The model is the easy part.