For some time now the term AI has been hijacked by marketing departments. AI-this, AI-that. At this rate I am waiting for the supermarket to start advertising AI-optimised carrots.
have seen this before. In the late nineties everyone told me to rebrand as an eConsultant. It was the future, they said. There were stories everywhere about people making fortunes simply by putting an e in front of their title. I held back.
When the dotcom bubble burst, some of those same eConsultants ended up painting my kitchen walls. I am not being unkind. I am being accurate.
The pattern repeats. eConsultant, eTeacher, eMarketing, dotcom, big data, blockchain, and now AI. Some of the underlying technologies survive and matter. The buzzword branding always dates badly, and when it does it takes your credibility with it.
My advice is simple. Do not put AI in your job title or your business name. It tells a buyer nothing about what you actually do or what problem you solve for them. And the moment the next big thing arrives, which it will, your brand will look like a relic of whatever hype cycle came before.
Substance does not go out of fashion. Buzzwords always do.
