The Frozen Middle: Why AI Initiatives Stall Before Production

While C-suite executives and developers embrace AI enthusiastically, 74% of companies fail to extract real value from their investments—and the culprit isn't technology or budget. Middle managers, whose core responsibilities (information synthesis, cross-functional coordination, strategy translation) are precisely what AI does best, have structural incentives to slow adoption, quietly derailing transformation initiatives. This 'frozen middle' problem represents the largest hidden threat to enterprise AI success, one that technical solutions alone cannot solve.