“In our own research, polling over 1,600 AI practitioners and leaders and validating this with bot analysis, we found 65% of teams are rolling out AI without the fundamental tech infrastructure in place,” he said. “Trying to build cutting-edge applications atop weak foundations is like building an F1 car on a go-kart engine—you simply won’t get results. So while a 95% failure rate might seem like a sign of a bubble, once organizations focus more on what AI actually needs to succeed, we’ll begin to see the traction everyone is expecting.”
“Every major tech shift goes through a stage where hype runs ahead of business fundamentals,” he said. “Some companies are burning money on inference costs, offering ‘all-you-can-eat’ models that cost thousands to run but bring in only hundreds in revenue—a pattern reminiscent of Uber’s early years. That overinflation explains market caution, but the underlying technology isn’t overhyped. In health care, for example, AI is transforming drug development, patient care, and physician decision-making.
“The correction will come. But over the long haul, the winners will be those who prove AI delivers durable value in complex, high-stakes environments,” Feiger added.
“Investors are right to be cautious,” she said. “Not every company claiming to be ‘AI-driven’ is creating real value; a lot of it is smoke and mirrors, with some tools amounting to incremental improvements on non-AI tech. Correction is inevitable, as history shows.
“But the technology isn’t going away. AI is already making a difference in health care, marketing, logistics, and finance. And we’re only scratching the surface. In the long run, I expect the impact of AI to rival the Industrial Revolution. There’s a lot of froth in the market right now, but the bigger story is just beginning. In other words: short-term bubble, long-term transformation.”
“We’re not at the peak of AI. We’re at an inflection point.”
“Stock prices may have outpaced fundamentals, but inside enterprises, AI is already infrastructure,” Freydoonejad told Fortune.
“No one who’s seen campaign launch speed improve by 70% is going back to the old way,” he said. “Some vendors did slap ‘AI’ on legacy products to cash in, but those valuations will be corrected—and deservedly so. What matters is which firms are using AI not as a shallow trend but as the basis for their entire product. Real efficiency gains are showing up for companies embedding AI deeply in their workflows. The market is about to sort out those with substantive results from those selling only promises.”
“Big Tech just raised AI spending guidance to $360+ billion for 2025, up sharply from previous estimates. I watch those numbers more closely than day-to-day share price changes,” he said.
“This isn’t a rejection of AI, it’s a market becoming more selective,” Kouhlani continued. “The crash is separating real AI revenues from companies that only have AI PowerPoints. We’re not in another dot-com bust. The infrastructure is being built now, and expectations are adjusting faster than the technology itself.”
“Major players like Palantir and Microsoft failed to hold breakouts after strong earnings. That’s a sign the good news may be priced in,” Russell told Fortune. “Markets move ahead of fundamentals, but excessive prices punish those chasing the froth. In the weeks ahead, sentiment could shift to other macro factors.”
The expert consensus is clear: While stocks have pulled back, the fundamentals behind AI remain strong. Most believe the recent rout is an overdue market sorting—separating hype from reality, speculation from enduring value. Even MIT’s cautious findings are seen as a spur rather than a death knell.
Now, all eyes will turn to Nvidia, which reports quarterly earnings next week. But broadly speaking, what the market isn’t experiencing isn’t a sign of crisis, but a marker of growing pains.
