AI Hype Overwhelms Corporate Strategy
A consultant named Nik Suresh has shared a series of spicy anecdotes about the AI mania that is overwhelming the large companies he works with. His observations, relayed via anonymous sources, paint a picture of decision-making that has been eviscerated by the current frenzy around artificial intelligence.
In one extreme case, an executive confessed that they had never used ChatGPT or any AI tool in their life. This same person had just produced a technical strategy for an organization with more than $2 billion in revenue. The entire strategy was centered around AI.
Token Leaderboards and Job Security
An engineer at a company that maintains a token leaderboard described a desperate workaround. The engineer said they were checking out a parallel copy of their Go repository and telling an AI to rewrite the whole thing in Zig while they worked on something else. The motivation was simple: to keep their job.
The Fear of Contradicting Customers
One particularly telling anecdote involves a conversation with a skeptical executive at an over-enthusiastic company. The consultant asked why certain claims were being repeated without opposition. Was it just sales fluff?
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The answer was more interesting than expected. Part of the problem was ridiculous sales material being delivered to an easily excitable audience. But that was not the dominant factor constraining honesty.
Executives at the vendor's customers were saying absurd things about achieving 100x productivity gains. If any executive at the vendor said these gains were not plausible, it would undermine the credibility of the customer's executive. It would be perceived as an attack or heresy. It could even result in an enterprise contract cancellation.
Getting enterprise contracts cancelled because you wanted to opine on something that does not really matter to your organization's mission is a great way to get fired. So the silence continues.
Background and Context
Simon Willison, a well-known figure in the developer community, posted this link on 19th July 2026. Willison often curates and comments on notable pieces from around the web. The original piece by Nik Suresh has resonated with many in the tech industry who see similar dynamics playing out in their own organizations.
The anecdotes highlight a broader trend where AI hype is leading to poor strategic decisions. Companies are rushing to adopt AI without proper understanding or due diligence. The fear of being left behind is driving irrational behavior.