1. Purpose of the gate
Pilot approval is the first moment design data meets a candidate tool. Up to now, everything has been planning. After this gate, data may be copied into an environment, prompts and inputs may reach a supplier, and some of that cannot be undone: data already sent to a service cannot be recalled. The gate therefore concentrates on the data and the contract, and only secondarily on budget and people.
The gate criteria are pilot data handling approved by information security for the named data only; an evaluation agreement signed, with confidentiality and no training on pilot data unless agreed; budget and people committed for the pilot; and a pilot environment isolated from production design data. Each criterion is narrow on purpose. Approval covers the named data, not a class of data, and the environment is isolated, not merely access controlled.
This gate also freezes the choice between building, buying or using AI features already licensed, because the evaluation agreement and environment are specific to that choice. Changing the source of the capability after this point means a new agreement and usually a new pilot.
10 more sections for registered members.