Fordel Studios2025 was the year AI got a vibe check
What Happened
AI’s early-2025 spending spree featured massive raises and trillion-dollar infrastructure promises. By year’s end, hype gave way to a vibe check, with growing scrutiny over sustainability, safety, and business models.
Our Take
The emperor has no clothes moment finally landed in 2025. Trillion-dollar infra bets look stupid when LLMs plateau and nobody's actually making money on inference. All that talk about sustainability? Code for 'this electricity bill is insane.' Safety scrutiny? People noticing the emperor's naked.
What actually happened: enterprises found narrow AI wins (document processing, customer support), paid less than promised, and moved on. The AGI hype deflated because hard problems stayed hard.
Honestly, this is healthy. We spent a year finding out what AI's actually good for (not everything) and what it costs (more than anyone wants to admit). Next year's AI budgets will be honest instead of hopeful.
What To Do
Stop pitching enterprise AI ROI on transformation; start benchmarking against current vendor costs — that's what actually drives budget approvals.
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