I’ve been hearing a lot of people say AI feels like a bubble, and honestly, I can’t blame them. I'm sure most of us are aware of this trend.
Everywhere you look, it’s “AI this” and “AI that.” Every app suddenly has an AI feature. Startups that were doing something entirely different six months ago are now “AI-first.”
And, yeah, investors are throwing money around like it’s 1999 again.
But here’s the thing: I’ve seen a few of these hype cycles before — crypto, NFTs, the metaverse, even 3D printing back in the day — and this one feels a little different. It is a bubble in some ways, but it’s also something much bigger and slower that’s not going away anytime soon.
The Hype Part (and It’s Definitely Real)
Let’s start with the obvious: there’s too much noise right now.
Some companies are basically just calling OpenAI’s API, adding a nice user interface, and raising millions. You’ve got “AI-powered” toothbrushes, note-taking tools, HR apps — all kinds of things that don’t really need AI.
And it’s working, at least for now. Saying “AI” in your pitch deck is like a cheat code for funding. But it’s a short-term trick. When the easy money dries up, most of these projects will disappear.
I know a couple of founders who pivoted to AI last year just to stay relevant. They weren’t trying to scam anyone; it’s just what the market rewarded. But that kind of behavior always shows up right before a correction.
The Real Part (That’s Not Going Away)
Despite the noise, the underlying shift is real.
This stuff actually works. It’s not perfect, but it’s already useful in a way that feels different from past tech fads.
People use Chat GPT and other AIs to write code, emails, summaries, even lesson plans. Designers are using image models to cut their concept time in half. Developers are shipping products faster because they can offload small, repetitive tasks.
You might roll your eyes at the hype, but when something becomes that useful, it doesn’t just disappear. It becomes infrastructure.
It reminds me of the early internet days. Back then, people built websites that said “Welcome to my homepage” and added flashing GIFs everywhere. A lot of nonsense, but beneath it, something powerful was taking root. That’s kind of where we are with AI now.
The Stuff That’ll Pop
I don’t think the “AI bubble” will burst all at once. It’s more like air slowly leaking out of an overinflated balloon.
The startups that don’t have any data of their own are the first to go. If your whole product depends on someone else’s API, you don’t have a moat. The ones that survive will either own their data or have a deep understanding of a specific problem.
Also, the job titles — oh man. “Prompt engineer” might be this decade’s “social media guru.” It’s hot now, but it’ll settle into something more practical later.
And let’s be honest, the AGI talk is mostly theater. It’s fun to dream about super intelligent machines, but most people just want a tool that works reliably. The day-to-day value of AI will come from the boring stuff — automating processes, improving decisions, saving time.
What Will Actually Stick Around
The people and companies that treat AI as a tool, not a miracle, are the ones that’ll last.
They’re the ones building real products that solve painful problems. The ones combining AI with domain knowledge — medicine, logistics, manufacturing, education. That’s where the durable value is.
In a few years, nobody will say “we’re an AI company.” They’ll just be companies that use AI. The same way nobody says they’re an “internet company” anymore.
AI won’t vanish after the hype cools off; it’ll just blend in.
I think what scares people isn’t just the overuse of the term “AI,” but how fast it’s moving. It feels like we skipped a few steps — one day we were talking about automation, and the next we were debating digital consciousness. That kind of leap makes people uneasy.
But when you strip away the headlines, AI is just another tool humans built to make work easier. It’s powerful, sure, but it’s still a tool.
If history’s any guide, the hype will burn out, the money will shift somewhere else, and what’s left will be the part that’s actually useful. And that’s the part that’ll quietly — slowly — reshape everything.
Not with fireworks, not with “paradigm shifts,” but with everyday improvements that sneak up on us until one day, we can’t imagine working without them.
In short:
Yeah, the bubble’s real. But it’s not the story. The story is what’s left after it pops. And that part — the real part — is just getting started.
So AI is not going anywhere, if its actually productive, but the bubble of showoff only and useless AI stuffs is bound to pop.
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