Founder's Story - Why 87% of AI Projects Fail—and How Alejandro’s SVCH Is Changing That | Ep 266 with Alejandro Cuauhtemoc-Mejia – Co-Founder SVCH

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

In this episode of Founder’s Story, Alejandro Cuauhtemoc-Mejia joins to discuss how Silicon Valley Certification Hub (SVCH) is bringing standards and trust to AI adoption worldwide. From his perspective inside Silicon Valley, Alejandro reveals why executives—not technology—are the primary reason AI fails within organizations, and why SVCH’s certification is becoming the gold standard for responsible, strategic AI use. Key Discussion Points: Alejandro explains why 87% of corporate AI projects fail before they ever scale. He outlines the three levels of AI adoption—strategy, operations, and ethics—and why so many executives focus on the wrong layer. He shares insights into why “AI everywhere” doesn’t always translate to innovation and how SVCH certifies organizations in a way that signals trust to investors, partners, and customers. We also explore the hidden truth that few in Silicon Valley admit about AI adoption and why the companies that treat AI as the new electricity are the ones most likely to thrive. Alejandro also touches on surprising research that shows why people often trust chatbots more when they sound like robots rather than humans. Takeaways: The conversation highlights that AI fails in corporations because of people, not because of the technology itself. Executives must embrace and guide adoption for real change to happen. Standards and certifications like SVCH are going to be critical as AI becomes as commonplace as electricity. The businesses that win won’t simply add “AI” to a pitch deck but will build strategies that integrate talent, culture, and ethics. Trust will define the next era of AI, and those who can prove responsible adoption will attract investors, clients, and partners. Closing Thoughts: Alejandro Cuauhtemoc-Mejia is on a mission to make AI adoption trustworthy, strategic, and impactful. With SVCH’s seal of certification, businesses can show the world they’re ready for the AI-powered future—one built on standards, trust, and real results. 🌐 https://svch.io/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Alejandro, I love to talk about AI. With you, it's your AI corporations, the future. We're going to talk all things. We might even get into robots. I don't know why. Yeah, the people growing everything. Like, there's a lot of options out there in the market. But when they are trying to implement in the companies, they fail.

For 100 projects that they propose, that they were about AI, just tend to see the light. What are you seeing in terms of the AI adoption when it comes to corporations? Bivided on three levels. The strategy, the operations, the ethical and safety. So what happened is that one of those three things fail.

So do you see a world like 10 years from now where humans and AI talking with each other and everything is a smooth process? So in 10 years, AI will be everywhere. So Alejandro, I love to talk about AI. And with you, it's AI corporations, the future. We're going to talk all things.

We might even get into robots. I don't know why. You said you're open to answering any question. But I really want to understand this because I think this is a huge, a hugely hot topic right now. but most people are thinking that AI fails because of the technology. But you say it's because of the people and why? Yeah, the people like ruin everything.

But why? Like what happened behind? Well, actually, there's like the tools there. Like there's a lot of options out there in the market. But when they are trying to implement in the companies, they fail. Because, like, imagine, like, McKinsey actually have, like, a really nice study about it. For 100 projects that they proposed that they were about AI, just tend release. Just tend to see the light.

And why that happened? Because most of them fail at the beginning. They die because the executives do not understand because. they do not embrace because they cannot explain what's a pipeline or what's the reason or how those that work. So at the end, they prefer just to keep working as they are working right now. And with that, everything fails, even if the CEO or the investors or everybody see the potential. If the executives do not understand, they will not embrace and everything will fail.

So the answer is not actually that the tools are not working, is that the executives do not understand how they can apply to their operations, to their work, to the strategy, and how they can see the benefits from all that. And that's a hard truth. I read some articles recently that many corporations that they thought they were going into AI tools and usage. These are large corporations.

They found that production didn't go up from their employees, that many times it actually was stagnant or went down. What are you seeing in terms of the AI adoption when it comes to corporations? And I wonder, is it because of the training, is it because of the certifications or a lack thereof, that their teams are not fully embracing it? on top of the executive. So we can divide it on three levels.

Like first, the strategy, then the operations, and finally the ethical and safety use of all the tools. So what happened is that one of those three things fail. Or in the executive, like do not understand what will be the benefits or still they do not know where AI makes sense for their purpose. The second on the processes, like where they will have more ROI, where they will have more impact,

where they have the talent to use AI on their operations. And finally, there's a lot of questions about risk, about possible failures, about safety, PR things. that if they do not trust or if they do not understand well, everything or one of those things will fail. And actually, that's what we realized, Silicon Valley Certification Hub, that we need to understand every company to see where they can improve better, where they can use AI.

And actually, we use AI to support them. to adopt AI. So that's overall how we support them, to give them a batch, a seal that say, like, you know, this company is ready to use AI. They use it in the process as part of the strategy. They have the talent and so on. But yeah, usually we need to go deeper

and understand what the company point of view and work from there. If we look into the future, I know everyone's talking now about AI agents or agentic AI and AI talking to AI, talking to AI, which I always find like a fun

conversation, right? It's like AI talking to how many AI is talking to how many AIs talking to, how many AIs? But do you see a world where it is so, when it comes to the corporate environment, where it is so integrated because that trust you mentioned the trust isn't always there that it's going to succeed or be 100% as successful as they want it to be so do you see a world like

10 years from now where this is you know humans and AI talking with each other and many AI talking to many AI and everything is a smooth process so in 10 years AI will be everywhere, in our cereal, in our TV, if we still have TV or other devices. So everything will change a lot. Why, actually? Because it's generating so many efficiencies in the process. Imagine, like, at least, like, on average,

companies are selling 20% more with AI. and they need 10% less resources, human or other tools, to reach like those targets. So everybody see the benefits of a good LLM, of AI, and they are growing more and more solutions across all industries. They call it, like Andrew New, call it the new electricity. And let's think like that, like the AI will be the electricity, but the companies are building how to focus on like electricity, use it for maybe your fridge, for a TV, for a computer, and the same will happen with AI.

The companies will use all the LLMs and all the technology to build solutions across all industries, across all needs, that supports humanity. So, what will happen in 10 years, we will need standards. What will happen is that the companies that will have more trust, they will grow faster.

In a world where AI is everywhere, trust is everything. And that's why at SBCH, we help them to build that trust. We analyze our process, their process, their operations, the talent, the strategy, and at the end they have a good signal to say like, hey, investors, hey partners, hey clients, I'm a good company that is using AI and I will grow fast, I will create an impact and I will have all the trust for everybody that is part of our

network. So, yeah. Well, I don't eat a lot of cereal, but if I had AI in my cereal, I probably would eat more cereal. So I can't, I can't wait to see how that that'll play out there. But everyone is rushing now, at least what I'm seeing, to put AI powered in their pitch deck. I run across a few pitch decks or anyone pitching anything. It's like, like you said about, you know, the joke about cereal in a sense, like if they're making an app about something and it's serial involved or whatever they'll put AI seems to be like they have to do that but what is the cost though of doing it wrong and how are how can you spot the real innovators when everyone is saying AI literally is everywhere so there are some studies super interesting about the use of AI

So let's think about, like, those that use AI a lot, even in their serial, usually they have more average answers. Imagine, for example, for students. If they use AI in their essays on their homework, everybody will have an overall good essay, good grammar and structure, but nothing interesting. But those that actually combine AI with their work that they use just for minimal things, they have much more interesting essays, better results, like better way to, or more interesting way to present all the content and explain everything. So actually, the innovation for those that work combining AI with their way of, with their word view or their capabilities, they have much better results. Now, let's translate that to companies. Those companies that will maybe adopt some AI without any strategy that they say like,

okay, I will use chat GPT to write my emails. I will use this tool to help me to give, to have some other ideas will stay there, will not be bad. They will just survive. But those that will combine their right strategy, their right talent, the right way to use AI for their operations, will go beyond and will grow faster, and that's a way that they will differentiate. And that's actually how we work with them to help them, hey, your talent, understand AI. They can build solutions with that. They can have impact on this more technical or tactical parts of the company. So, focused on that, have our seal and grow fast and differentiate for all the other

that they are just taking some other solution of AI that is not integrated at all. Yeah, I mean, you have like with vibe coding now and all these apps that can create, whether it's another app or a website in, you know, five minutes, differentiation, I would imagine it's going to be such a big part. It's like, it's great that everyone has access to doing something, but when everyone has access, the amount of your competition

goes like to the roof. You have been called the ISO of AI. But what is the actual hardest truth around AI adoption that no one, especially in Silicon Valley, because I think you're in Palo Alto, what does no one there want to actually admit? Nobody wants to admit that they are not using AI. everybody say that they are using AI if but they do it what when you ask that

double-click is like how do they use it the answers is like really are really impressive they use it for to answer their emails to to book some meetings maybe to create some deck or some presentation period So at the end, they are just substituting, like they are changing a couple of analysts or interns work with AI. But they can, not substitute, but create more power to all the talent that they have. So instead of having 10 or 20 people in their team, they will have 20 super people. H.D. level workers with AI, but they need to guide them. They need to tell them, like, hey, let's use this tool of AI for A, B, and C on their processes. This is the ETA that will have.

You will be trained to understand all the capabilities of this tool, and this will be the expected results as you have. So that's where makes sense AI, where the companies that can't seal the power of that, they will grow fast, they will gain trust with clients,

with investors, with partners, but they need the right strategy. So as VCH, we help them to see if they are ready, how they can integrate in their work, if they're safe, the way that they are trying to do it

and have a clear path of how to move from this random, really vague way to use AI to a super company AI integrated. I like how people are like, I use AI, chat CBT as if AI is only chat CBT. So I know you have a very impressive roster of coaches

and there are a lot of people out in this world that are saying that our teaching or certifying AI and I think many of them never even had experience before in AI, which I find also very interesting. So for you though, if people are like, yeah, but why would I trust Alejandro or Daniel to be doing this business or why would I trust the coaches that you have? What would you say to them? what we give them is trust of their brand with our sale. And that doesn't work if we do not have trust. So overall, how we build all that, that's really interesting.

We have, like Daniel, he's a software engineer with huge experience working with big companies as PM and specifically working and understanding AI. and I work from technology, working also with a huge algorithms to a DD and other parts that help them grow. And most of our work, actually, is to analyze recent papers, academic papers that help us see where's the future, what is the research, where is going. Actually, we invite you to enter our LinkedIn and follow our blogs because we post a lot of papers from top universities. We have webinars and conferences with great PhD doctors that have really interesting research. And we obtain all that information curated with great experts from top universities, from founders, from experts, from experts. that at the end help us build a solution that is really good, really curated,

and specifically for non-technical executives. So you will not code in our platform with our certification. You will not go deeper. But you need to understand what's an LLM, what's a RAC, what's a vector, like to be able to, you know, to leave with a right understanding of all that. So we have the trust, we have the network, and actually we have a really nice course with Merv Hickok,

who is a professor from Michigan University, and she helped us build all the part of ethical and responsibility. So overall, we have the trust, we have all the capabilities, and yeah, we, We invite you to send us an email and enter our website, sbc.h.io, by the way. Alejandro, I love that. My last question is this, because you're seeing all of this fascinating data and studies and all these things, is there anything interesting?

It doesn't even have to be related to corporations and AI, but is there anything interesting that stands out or sticks to you that you've been seeing? recently around all of these data and papers and all this information that you've been gathering, is there something in it that you're like, oh, wow, this is fascinating? Like, I'm really interested to see how this goes or I'm really interested to see how this impacts corporations or business. Is there something there that maybe you haven't said or maybe something you've been talking about recently? There's a paper that I loved like a couple of weeks ago from.

from a professor from Florida International University. And what he analyzed is the chat bots that help people to buy more. So imagine like, okay, if you are buying like this thing or trying to see it to use it, the chatbot said like, oh, that looks really well combined with your background, is the right size and whatever.

But the issue is that when people realize that this is a robot or a bot, they trust more because they say like, okay, there's no bias. It's not that the seller wants to compliment me or my taste, so I'll buy it. Versus if the chatbot is super realistic, they think that it's a human. And then they start to say, like, wait, he just want to sell more. Like, what's the reason behind all those nice comments about me and all that? So at the end, they realize, and it's statistically significant, that the robots that look like a robot have better sales

that those are superhumanized, at least for say, sales and give like those compliments. So that's really interesting how people start to trust more on robots that in human behavior, even if both are robots, by the way. Wow, that is fascinating. I was just hanging out with a robot yesterday. Like true story. This woman was telling me she's a researcher at MIT and she's living with this robot

because they're studying how it is to live with robots. And so she was like showing us this robot and all the things that it could do. But that is fascinating around. And I wonder how this is going to change as we get more integrated with humanoids and robots. And if eventually we won't be able to tell, you know, an actual human from a robot. But it sounds though, like, which it makes sense, if I think it's a robot right now, I trust it because I don't think it has a reason to oversell something that I may not need. It is recommending things to me because it thinks I need it, even though it actually might be trying to sell us.

But like our human mind can't wrap our head around the fact that it's a programmed robot. And it's almost like the robot works for me versus trying to sell me something. Thank you for showing you. I'm very interested to see and to read more about this. But Alejandro, this has been great. Share one more time where people can find you and get more information. yeah for sure please follow us is our website is svc h dot io or also you can find our website or all our content and blog in our lintin which you can find us as silicon valley certification hub or lintin slash svc

Also, there's my social media, which is my Alejandro Cuautemok Mejia on LinkedIn. I post a lot about AI, specifically on marketing and sales. Wow, Alejandro, I'm really, really fascinated with corporations, sales, marketing, all around how AI is transforming this. but Silicon Valley Certification Hub. Thank you for sharing everything today. And I can't wait to continue reading about all the papers and data. You got to come back. I mean, six months from now, can you imagine what's going to change?

So you've got to come back in six months. And we have to talk about how AI is transformed in six months. And I'm sure we're going to look back laughing like AI chatbots are more human than humans are. But this has been great conversation. Thanks for joining us on Founder's Story. Thank you so much, Dan. Yeah, for sure. And hopefully it's not in our serial in six months, the AI. Bye.