Are We in an AI Bubble… and What Happens If It Pops?
AI Bubble Burst
If you’ve spent five minutes on LinkedIn this year, you’ve seen it:
🚀 Startups with no product… raising like they’ve already changed the world.
🌪️ Companies “AI-washing” everything that moves.
⚡ Rushed rollouts from giants terrified of being left behind.
If it looks like a bubble and acts like a bubble… well, you know the rest.
But here’s the interesting part:
Not every bubble ends in a crash that kills the underlying technology.
The dot-com era was a spectacular implosion — and still, the Internet rebuilt the world on its ashes.
So if we are in an AI bubble… what does history tell us?
1. Bubbles don’t form around useless technologies; they form around inevitable ones.
Bubbles are emotional. They’re fuelled by fear of missing out, cheap capital, hero-worship of early winners, and the illusion that this time is different.
But here’s the twist:
Bubbles typically form around things that truly matter.
Railways. Radio. Semiconductors. The Internet. Smartphones.
Every one of those went through insane hype cycles.
Every one had a spectacular crash.
And every one still ended up transforming civilisation.
AI sits squarely in that category.
2. The hype will collapse long before the technology does.
Let’s be honest:
There are startups right now valued at £200M+ with… a landing page and a vibes-based roadmap.
There are enterprises slapping “AI-powered” on decades-old products hoping customers don’t look behind the curtain.
And there are founders raising rounds bigger than their addressable markets.
This part will correct.
Markets always sober up.
But after the correction?
The real builders, the ones focusing on actual value creation, will still be here.
3. The winners are the ones who survive the winter.
When the dot-com bubble burst, the carnage was brutal.
But Amazon survived.
Google survived.
eBay survived.
Because they weren’t hype machines. They were machines of value.
Today, the same applies:
The winners won’t be the loudest or the fastest to add “AI” to their pitch deck.
They’ll be the teams obsessed with:
✔ Evidence, not ego
✔ Repeatable value, not vanity metrics
✔ Responsible rollouts, not reckless velocity
✔ Solving real problems for real people
This is the boring stuff, but it’s also the profitable stuff.
4. So… will the AI bubble burst?
Short answer: Yes.
Longer answer: Yes, and it won’t stop anything.
If anything, the burst will:
- Clear out the noise
- Reallocate capital to real innovation
- Reduce AI-washing
- Increase trust in the industry
- Reward operators, not opportunists
Think of it as a reset, not a funeral.
Your turn.
Do you think the AI bubble will burst?
And if it does, what will it mean for startups, operators, and society at large?
Drop your thoughts in the comments — the diverse opinions here always spark the best discussions.