What it means in practice
Suppose you want to buy an expensive new company vehicle. You ask for a test drive first, to check your goods actually fit. A PoC is exactly that test drive for AI in your company. Instead of an expensive six-month build, you spend a few days and a small budget confirming that AI can do on your data what it promises.
Why companies need to know this
- Protecting the investment. It minimises the risk of spending tens of thousands on software that turns out not to help your employees at all.
- Fast answers. Within a few weeks you know where you stand and whether the project is worth extending across the company.
- Getting the team behind it. When employees see a working prototype, they accept the final solution far more readily.
An example from practice
A law firm was considering automating contract review. Rather than buying an expensive enterprise system at hundreds of euros a month, they ran a small PoC on 10 old contracts using a simple ChatGPT connection. They found the accuracy acceptable, gained confidence in the technology, and only then moved to a full implementation. In our company AI workshops we teach companies how to design and run quick PoC projects like this.