Maturity Level 2 of 6
Exploring
Funded pilots underway; first budget line and named sponsor.
Level 2 (Exploring) is where GenAI stops being a rumor and becomes a project — with a named sponsor, a first budget, and 2-3 initiatives underway.
Framework v2026.1 · Updated · machine-readable spec
What this level looks like in practice
The org has committed real (if modest) budget. First pilots are underway but rarely measured with rigor. The main risk is fragmentation — many small pilots, no consolidated view.
Level 2 across all six dimensions
- Strategy & Leadership
Named executive sponsor with a first-year budget. Strategy exists but is largely aspirational.
- Data & Infrastructure
Data catalogue in progress. First embeddings pipeline in a pilot.
- Use Cases & Applications
2-3 funded pilots with informal metrics. First business-owned use case.
- Talent & Culture
First internal AI literacy workshops. Dedicated AI/ML engineer hiring begins.
- Governance & Risk
Written AI policy exists. First risk assessments for high-risk pilots.
- Agentic AI
First agent prototypes on off-the-shelf frameworks. No eval.
Common blockers to the next level
- Every pilot is bespoke — no shared platform investment.
- No production deployment yet, so no operational discipline gets built.
- Sponsor moves on before the org reaches production.
Worked example — Financial Services
A regional bank has funded 3 pilots: chat summarization in the contact center, KYC document extraction, and internal knowledge search. The Chief Data Officer sponsors all three. Each pilot has ~$200k budget. None are in production yet.