What’s Inside
Our thoughts on the viral headlines: “95% of AI pilots fail”
Case Study: Nestlé’s AI-Powered Product Studio
What’s New: GPT-5’s Surprising Strengths & Struggles
In Case You Missed It: August’s AI-First Community Call Recap
Plus some new resources and a survey!
From Hype Headlines to Lasting Advantage
Amid the flood of AI headlines, one in particular grabbed our attention: MIT’s report that “95% of generative AI pilots fail”. The real story isn’t the failure rate, it’s what companies are overlooking.
Our Take: 95% of companies are skipping the hard (but necessary) work of transformation. Success isn’t about whether a shiny AI pilot goes into production. It’s about reshaping how teams work, learn, and make decisions every day.
The Real AI Story: From Hype Headlines to Lasting Advantage
Ignore the “95% fail” noise — success isn’t about pilots; it’s about AI becoming part of everyday work.
Biggest gains come from daily workflows — not one-off apps, but compounding productivity across teams.
Winning companies go AI-first — history shows that, like computers and the internet, long-term ROI comes after redesigning processes, retraining people, and embedding AI into culture and strategy
“The real win is becoming an AI-first organization, leveraging this new era of intelligence to transform how your team operates on a foundational, daily basis.” - Adam Brotman
Case Study: Nestlé’s AI-Powered Content Engine
Nestlé is transforming content creation with AI and digital twins, enabling faster, localized, and scalable product visuals across global campaigns.
What Are Digital Twins?
A digital twin is a virtual replica of a real-world product, process, or system. Powered by AI and data, it can be used to simulate, test, and scale without the cost or time of doing it physically.
Examples across industries:
Retail & eCommerce: Create 3D product replicas (like a coffee jar or sneaker) that can be localized for different markets or campaigns with no reshoots required.
Manufacturing: Model equipment virtually to predict maintenance needs, improve efficiency, and reduce downtime.
Healthcare: Build digital versions of organs or patients to safely test treatments and improve outcomes.
For brands like Nestlé, digital twins mean faster, localized, and scalable content creation, powering global campaigns with precision and speed.
Here’s what stood out:
Creative Co-Pilots: Built on NVIDIA Omniverse, Nestlé has created over 4,000 3D replicas of its products, allowing teams to instantly generate new imagery, without reshooting, for different markets, platforms, and seasonal needs.
70% faster, at global scale: The new in-house system supports 250 marketers and 45 content studios across 7 hubs. The goal: 10,000 digital twins and high-quality, on-demand assets for every brand and market.
Built for modern media: From TikTok to retail media, Nestlé now meets the demand for multiformat content, faster and more cost-effectively, while keeping brand consistency intact.
“We can do more with the teams we have, scaling high-quality content with AI and digital twins.”
— David Rennie, Head of Strategic Business Units, Nestlé
Read more:
AI News You Shouldn’t Miss
GPT-5: Power, Promises, and a Bumpy Start
OpenAI releasted it’s latest model, GPT-5 in early August. Impressive in power, imperfect in rollout, but still a breakthrough worth paying attention to.
Here’s what you need to know:
Big leaps in reasoning & memory: GPT‑5 outperforms GPT‑4 on complex tasks, longer conversations, and strategic thinking, especially in business, legal, and coding use cases.
Quirky personality shifts: Early users reported that GPT‑5 felt colder or less engaging than GPT‑4. OpenAI has responded by restoring access to older models like GPT‑4 Legacy and GPT‑4o.
Rollout friction acknowledged: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted the release was “botched,” citing bugs and unexpected user pushback, but emphasized ongoing model fine-tuning.
Still delivering results: Despite quirks, GPT‑5 is already enabling advanced workflows in creative, operations, legal, and R&D across Fortune 500s and startups alike.
What this means for your team: Treat GPT‑5 as a high-performance tool but one that still benefits from structured prompting, human review, and model-switching when needed.
Monthly Call Recap — August 26
On August 26, we hosted our Monthly AI-First Community call - an engaging session filled with thoughtful discussion, Q&A, and generous idea-sharing from Adam, Andy and our members. Together, we explored the implications of GPT-5, practical examples of vibe coding, and turning prompts into repeatable workflows.
This month’s call made it clear: AI has moved from ideation to execution, and our community is leading the way.
Some highlights from our discussion:
Prompt to get the prompt: Ask the model to interview you before generating a high-quality prompt.
Structure drives output: Members are using prompt formats like CRAFT and COSTAR to get more consistent results.
Model-hopping is real: One prompt. Three models. Pick the best result.
Vibe coding at work: From dashboards to campaign timers, natural language is turning into production-grade code.
GPT-5 quirks: One user built a working tool. Another rage-quit. Same prompt.
Be sure not to miss our next Monthly AI-First Community call on Tuesday, September 30.
Add this event to your calendar:
| 📅 Apple Calendar (.ICS) | 📅 Google Calendar |
| 📅 Outlook | 📅 Yahoo Calendar |
From the AI First Resource Hub
We’re excited to share that we’ve added some new resources to the Hub, shaped by your feedback and community conversations (including Vibe Coding 101 and some videos we think you should watch!). Thank you for telling us what’s most useful. This hub is built with you and for you, so keep the ideas coming.
Explore now!
Help Us Get to Know You Better
Before you go, please help us get to know you better!
We’re asking for just 2 minutes of your time to answer a few quick questions. Why? Because the better we understand who you are, what you're working on, and what you're curious about, the better we can shape this AI resource library to fit your needs.
It’s all about building a space that truly supports you.
Thanks for being part of this journey with us!
We appreciate you being on this journey with us. Your curiosity and sharing make this community what it is. Keep experimenting and let us know what you discover. And please, pass the invite along to a colleague or friend who should be part of the conversation.
-Adam, Andy & the Forum3 Team