The Messy Middle
Beyond Hype. Before Infrastructure.
We’ve officially hit “bubble” territory, complete with hype-marketing, overinflated valuations, and every product suddenly rebranded as “AI-powered.” It’s loud. It’s chaotic. And it’s eerily familiar.
If you’re feeling déjà vu, you’re not alone.
This mirrors the late 1990s “internet bubble,” when companies rushed to add “.com” to their names and sell anything they could online. When the bubble burst, the internet didn’t vanish. It became invisible. Infrastructure (not hype) won. Today, we don’t talk about “using the internet” unless the Wi-Fi goes down.
AI is heading the same way.
After the hype fades, AI won’t be a shiny object. It will be embedded, structural. It won’t be about cool features or viral demos. It will be about rethinking how work gets done. Teams. Workflows. Entire org charts.
That shift creates a dual challenge for leaders:
Externally, you’ll need to position “AI-powered” as reliable, practical, and deeply human-centered, not as a gimmick.
Internally, you’ll need to redesign roles, workflows, and decision-making for a world where agents (not interns) handle the grunt work.
This isn’t easy. The temptation will be to either over-engineer (“AI everything!”) or freeze up (“Let’s wait and see”). Both paths lead nowhere.
The real opportunity lies in cutting through the noise. Seeing AI for what it is: not a magic wand, but a lever. A way to shift margins, speed, and capabilities in ways that were unthinkable just 12 months ago.
Leaders who get this will emerge stronger. They’ll stop talking about AI as a thing and start using it as oxygen.
We are here to support these leaders.
