A Business Novel
The AI Leap
From Pilot to Production & Beyond. Human-Led, AI-Powered.
Most organizations can start an AI pilot. Few know how to scale it into production. Fewer still know how to govern it, sustain it, and evolve it as both AI and their business change.
The AI Leap follows the team at Zontera HealthTech — a fictional healthcare technology company — as they navigate the full transformation journey: from experiment to enterprise, from pilot to production, from risk to governance. Fifteen chapters. Five frameworks. One team that learns what it actually takes.
“A rare business novel that actually teaches you how to build the thing.”
— Shiv Misra, VP Advanced Analytics, McKesson
“The frameworks are practical. The story is relatable. This is how you actually scale AI.”
— Eric O’Brien, Agile Transformation Leader
“Toby bridges the gap between AI ambition and organizational reality.”
— Dr. Suzette Johnson, AI Strategy Advisor
The AI Leap shows leaders how to turn promising pilots into production systems by centering people, process, and pragmatic AI strategy.
The AI Leap maps the journey from early experiments to enterprise-grade AI, exposing the common traps that stall adoption and offering a practical playbook for leaders who want durable impact.
The book blends case studies, leadership frameworks, and coaching techniques to show how organizations can build organizational agility while embedding AI into everyday decision-making.
Readers will learn how to design governance that scales, create learning loops that accelerate value, and keep human judgment at the center so AI amplifies rather than replaces human capability.
The Frameworks
The book introduces five frameworks:
- LEAP — A four-stage model for moving from pilot to scale
- SUMMIT — A strategic view of AI transformation across the enterprise
- SHIELD — A risk and governance model for AI at scale
- TRAIL — A guide to navigating organizational resistance
- RIDGE — A maturity model for AI-enabled teams
Each framework is introduced in context, used by the characters, and then detailed in The Field Guide.
The Field Guide
The back matter includes a nine-section Field Guide:
- The Starting Point
- Where You Are on the Trail
- Know Your Role
- The Four Frameworks (detailed reference)
- Go Deeper (additional resources)
- Ready to Use (templates and tools)
- Watch Your Step (common pitfalls)
- Measure What Matters (metrics and KPIs)
- Keep Climbing (what’s next)
Sample Chapters
A taste of the story
Chapter 1
The First Experiment
Maya Jennings stared at the dashboard on her screen. The AI model had been running for three weeks, and the early results looked promising. Customer churn predictions were more accurate than anything the team had built before. The data science team was excited. The executive team wanted a roadmap to scale it across the business.
But Maya knew this was the dangerous moment. The moment when a promising pilot gets fast-tracked into production before anyone has figured out the governance, the risk management, or the cultural shift required to make it stick…
Additional chapter excerpts — client to provide 150-200 word samples for 2 more chapters
The Cast
Ten characters who learn what it actually takes to make AI stick
Forewords By
Dr. Uday Kamath
Chief Analytics Officer, Smarsh
Author of Explainable AI and Deep Learning for NLP
Jesse Fewell
Chair, PMBOK Guide 8th Edition
Former Director, PMI Agile Practice Guide
About Toby Rao
Toby Rao is Global Director of R&D Operations | AI COE Lead at Exostar, where he reengineered processes across Development, DevOps, and QA teams, scaling AI adoption from 5 pilots to 30+ production deployments in 10 months. He has 19+ years of enterprise transformation experience across federal agencies, defense contractors, Fortune 500 companies, and Big 4 consulting.
He’s hands-on with AI governance and adoption: architecting production RAG systems for 6 GPTs now in production, designing prompt engineering frameworks, and evangelizing AI adoption in FedRAMP and ITAR-compliant environments. His work has achieved 73% AI adoption rates, 83% productivity gains, and 37% faster delivery across 500-person organizations.
He founded the Loudoun AiGile Network in 2020, a community of 2,300+ practitioners. He has spoken at 30+ conferences and contributed thought leadership to DevOps.com, Medium, and LinkedIn.
He lives in Ashburn, Virginia with his wife Madhavi, sons Varun and Vaibhav, and dog Bruno.
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Available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook formats.
Formats: Hardcover | eBook | Audiobook