Every few years, the tech world picks a new obsession. In the late 90s it was dot-com domains. In the 2010s it was crypto and ICOs. Then came NFTs, which vanished almost as fast as they appeared. Now, it’s AI. And not just regular AIworld-changing, job-eating, society-reshaping AI.
The hype is loud.
The investments are massive.
The predictions are dramatic.
But the question is simple: Are we inside a bubble?
1. The Money Flood Is Unreal
If you look at the funding numbers, you’d think AI is the new gold rush.
Startups with half-finished demos are raising millions. Companies are adding “AI features” just to keep investors interested. Even businesses that have nothing to do with AI are slapping the label on their pitch decks because it magically multiplies valuations.
It feels familiar. Almost too familiar.
Dot-com familiar.
But here’s the key difference:
Back then, the internet was still figuring out how to exist.
Today, AI is already everywhere even if we don’t always see it.
2. The Tech Is Real, But Expectations Are Not
Let’s get one thing straight: AI works.
Not perfectly. Not flawlessly. But undeniably better than most people expected five years ago.
We have AI that can write, paint, code, speak, diagnose, translate, summarize, personalize, predict, analyze basically everything short of making us a cup of tea.
But the expectations are crazy.
People think AI will replace:
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all jobs,
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all creativity,
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entire industries,
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and possibly humanity if the Hollywood crowd has anything to say about it.
Reality check:
AI is still glitchy. Still biased. Still dependent on the quality of human data. Still prone to inventing facts when it gets confused. And still horrifyingly expensive to run at scale.
So yes, the tech is real, but some people are treating it like magic pixie dust.
3. The Market Behavior Looks Inflated
Here’s the bubble-like part no one wants to admit:
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Companies with no revenue are hitting billion-dollar valuations.
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GPU prices feel like real estate in Mumbai.
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Every corporate presentation now has an AI slide, even if the business sells soap.
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People are buying AI tokens, AI NFTs, AI meme coins.
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Startups are launching “AI for everything” from AI pets to AI funerals (not kidding).
When investors start throwing money at ideas instead of working products, that’s usually the first sign of a bubble forming.
4. But This Isn’t 1999 or 2021
But here’s why it’s not a simple bubble like dot-com or crypto:
AI is already producing real economic value.
Real cost savings.
Real productivity boosts.
Real tools people actually use.
Even if all the hype died tomorrow, AI wouldn’t disappear. It’s already an essential layer of modern technology.
Compare that to NFTs, which completely fell off the map once the hype died.
AI isn’t going anywhere.
5. So What’s Actually Going to Pop?
If a bubble pops, it won’t be AI itself, it’ll be the surrounding insanity.
Here’s what’s likely to burst:
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Overvalued AI startups with no actual business model
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Companies pretending to use AI
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AI coins, meme tokens, and fake “AI-powered trading bots”
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Ridiculous expectations that AI will become conscious by next Thursday
Essentially: the noise, not the technology.
When the dust settles, the serious players the ones building real infrastructure, real tools, and real products will still be standing.
6. So… Is There an AI Bubble or Not?
Here’s the truth no one on LinkedIn wants to say:
Yes, there is a bubble. But not the kind that kills the industry.
It’s more like the early smartphone era or early cloud computing:
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Overhyped? Yes.
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Overfunded? Definitely.
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Overestimated? Absolutely.
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But destined to disappear? Not at all.
The bubble is around the expectations, not the technology.
AI is real.
AI is powerful.
AI is here to stay.
But the belief that it will solve everything, replace everyone, and turn every startup into a trillion-dollar empire that’s the part that’s going to crash.
The AI boom feels chaotic, noisy, and a bit ridiculous at times. But underneath the hype is something genuinely transformative.
Think of it like the early days of electricity:
Every company claimed they were “electrified.” Most failed.
But the ones that used electricity properly changed the world.
AI is the same story.
There is a bubble but it’s floating above a foundation that’s not going anywhere.
The winners will be the people and companies who stop chasing the hype and actually build something useful.