The coming AI bubble

I keep hearing people say that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) will change everything.

- REYNALDO C. LUGTU, JR.

And I agree. But I also think something else is happening in plain sight, something a lot of people don’t want to admit. We are building up to another AI bubble.

The kind that looks powerful and unstoppable at first, but sooner or later, winds up bursting.

We have seen this play before. I remember how people talked in the late 1990s. The internet was new, exciting, and full of promise. Every pitch sounded like the next big thing. Investors poured money into any startup that had ".com" in its name even if the business barely existed. Some founders didn’t even have a clear plan to earn money. They only needed a story that felt futuristic. It worked for a while, until reality stepped in. When the dotcom bubble collapsed, it wiped out companies and investments almost overnight. But the internet itself did not die. It continued growing and later became even more important. What failed was not the technology. It was the hype that pushed it too far and too fast.

Today, the same pattern is unfolding with AI. There's so much excitement around tools that can write, talk, code, analyze, and even create art. Many people assume AI will solve every problem you can throw at it. Money is flooding in. Predictions of trillion-dollar gains appear in the news every day. New companies show up like mushrooms after rain. Some of them have solid products. Others hope that investors won't notice their lack of real demand, as long as they use the right buzzwords.

The normal rules of business still apply, though.