Not Just Another Model by Costanza Balboni Cestelli

Not Just Another Model by Costanza Balboni Cestelli

Not Just Another Model: The Art of AI Product Development in Enterprise Settings is for those who have discovered that corporate AI is less about mathematical brilliance and more about organisational archaeology: excavating real problems buried beneath layers of political sediment, building bridges between technical possibility and business reality, and accepting that sometimes the most valuable skill is knowing when not to build an AI solution at all. Creating a successful AI product depends not only on technical competence but far more on business acumen, political savvy, and the judgment to know when AI is the answer and when it is not. That judgment cannot be reduced to a flowchart or automated into a decision tool. It emerges from experience, from understanding both what is technically possible and what is organisationally achievable, from learning to navigate the space between these boundaries.

Building that judgment is what this book is actually about. Its frameworks, thresholds, and assessment tools provide structure for decisions that ultimately require human wisdom. Its case studies illustrate patterns familiar across businesses, hard-won lessons written to save organisations from all-too-common failures.

It maps two realities: what AI can genuinely achieve and what corporate environments can genuinely absorb, and it develops the judgment that transforms practitioners who create impressive demonstrations into practitioners who deliver lasting impact. That transformation is neither quick nor easy. But it is possible, and it is valuable, and it is what separates the projects that quietly succeed from the projects that quietly disappear.

Costanza Balboni Cestelli is a technology executive and data scientist with over a decade of international experience spanning the consumer goods, technology, and real estate sectors. She has led complex innovation and transformation programmes across Europe, Latin America, and Asia, combining deep technical expertise with
strategic vision to deliver measurable impact.

She currently serves as global head of Data-Operations at EssilorLuxottica, where she oversees the design, engineering, and development of data and AI products and initiatives across the group’s operations. She is the creator of City Forward®, an AI-powered location intelligence platform transforming real estate investment decision-making. Prior to her current role, she held positions at Generali Real Estate, Ericsson, Ferrero, and KPMG Advisory and served as a quantitative economist for various international organisations and governing bodies.

She holds a degree in policy management and quantitative methods from the University of Manchester and an MPhil in big data and social mining from the University of Pisa. Her work has earned recognition in Repubblica’s Italian Women in AI (2024) and the Nova 111 Talent List (2025). She is a frequent speaker on the intersection of artificial intelligence, data, and corporate innovation. Since 2025, she has served as co-chair of ULI NEXT Italy. She lives in Milan with her husband and their two children.