The AI industry has turned “artificial intelligence” into the emptiest phrase in business, and I’m sick of it.

Every startup now says it “uses AI,” as if that explains anything. It recommends shirts. It writes meeting notes. It once used AI, but let’s not speak of that deployment.

The pattern is painfully familiar: breathless demos, vague promises of “supercharging productivity,” and pilots that vanish when someone asks what changed, what it cost, and whether anyone actually uses the thing.

What frustrates me most is that “AI” has become a costume. Put it on a mediocre product and suddenly the deck looks futuristic. Put it on a chatbot that hallucinates policy, and sales gets a badge of inevitability. Meanwhile, customers are left asking the basic question: is this useful?

Useful products don’t need an intelligence séance. They need to work, save time, and earn their place. Too many AI launches feel like expensive promises wrapped in hype, hoping we confuse activity with progress.

The future is not another AI demo; it is software that works.