The AI Backlash Is Here — And That's Actually Good News

AI hit the backlash phase.

Not the "this is scary" backlash from 2023. The "we're done with the hype" backlash. The kind where Americans are actively souring on the technology even as Google doubles its capital expenditure and Meta bets the farm on AI acceleration.

Here's what most people are missing: this is exactly what needed to happen.

The Hype Cycle Does Its Thing

Every transformative technology follows the same pattern. The Gartner Hype Cycle isn't a theory — it's a historical document that keeps repeating.

We had the "Peak of Inflated Expectations" in 2023. ChatGPT launches, everyone loses their mind, suddenly every startup is "AI-powered" and every job is about to disappear. VCs threw money at anything with "LLM" in the pitch deck.

Then reality shows up.

Pinterest and Dow announced layoffs last month, attributing job cuts in part to a shift to artificial intelligence. Not because AI replaced the workers — because executives realized AI wasn't the magic bullet the consultants promised. The easy gains got captured fast. The hard problems stayed hard.

Meanwhile, Big Tech isn't slowing down. Google says it will double its capital expenditure. Publicis earmarked €900M ($1.06B) for AI acquisitions in 2026. They're building while everyone else is panicking.

This is the Trough of Disillusionment. And if you know what you're looking at, it's the best time to build.

Why the Backlash Is Healthy

The hype phase filters for enthusiasm. The backlash phase filters for competence.

When everyone's excited, bad ideas get funded. When everyone's skeptical, only real value survives. The companies building vaporware and selling AI snake oil are about to hit a wall. The companies using AI to deliver actual results — faster, cheaper, better — are about to own their markets.

I see this every day building AuthorityTech. We've been using AI infrastructure to deliver PR results at scale for years now. Not "AI-assisted" — AI-native. The whole operation runs on it. And while everyone else was chasing the hype, we were grinding on the fundamentals: do the placements actually happen? Do clients actually get the outcomes we promised?

99.9% delivery rate. 8 years. One refund ever.

That didn't happen because we had better marketing. It happened because we built something that works when the lights are off and nobody's watching.

And now the market is finally ready to reward that.

The Quality Filter Is Activating

Here's what's happening beneath the surface:

1. Buyers are getting smarter

The early adopters bought the pitch. The mainstream buyers want proof. They've been burned by the "AI will solve everything" consultants. Now they're asking the hard questions: Does this actually work? Can you show me the results? What's the ROI?

The companies that can answer those questions win. The ones still selling dreams lose.

2. Talent is consolidating

According to the AllWork.space report, AI's PR problem is fueling a six-figure talent war across Big Tech. The best AI engineers aren't working at the hyped-up startups anymore. They're going to the companies with real infrastructure, real data, and real problems to solve.

This is Darwinian. The talent follows the truth.

3. Public skepticism creates pricing power

When everyone's excited about AI, buyers expect it to be cheap or free. "It's just software, right?" When the public is skeptical, the companies that can prove AI delivers real value can charge what it's actually worth.

We're moving from "AI is everywhere so it must be cheap" to "AI that actually works is rare and valuable."

What This Means for You

If you've been building something real — using AI to solve actual problems, deliver measurable results, and create value people will pay for — you're about to have a massive advantage.

The noise is clearing. The hype is dying. The tourists are leaving.

The question is: are you still here?

Because the companies that survive the backlash phase don't just survive. They dominate. They're the ones still standing when the "Plateau of Productivity" arrives — when AI becomes infrastructure, when it's just how things work, when the results are undeniable.

Think about the internet in 2001. The dot-com bubble burst. Everyone said the internet was overhyped. Public sentiment crashed. And the companies that kept building — Amazon, Google, eBay — became the most valuable companies on the planet.

AI is following the same playbook.

The Companies That Win

The winners in the next phase won't be the ones with the best pitch decks or the flashiest demos. They'll be the ones that can answer three questions:

1. Does it actually work?

Not "will it work someday." Not "it works in the demo." Does it work in production, under load, with real customers, when things break?

2. Can you prove it?

Metrics. Case studies. ROI. Outcomes. The era of "trust me bro" is over.

3. Can you deliver it at scale?

The early adopters tolerate bugs and downtime. The mainstream market doesn't. If you can't deliver reliability and consistency, you don't have a business — you have a science project.

The companies that can say "yes" to all three are about to feast.

Here's What I Know

I burned $1M trying to build software the traditional way. Hired dev teams, chased the SaaS dream, got robbed by a CTO who spent 8 months building his own company on my dime. The money evaporated. The business didn't.

The lesson wasn't "don't use AI." The lesson was "use AI to build something real, not something hyped."

So I taught myself to code with Cursor and Claude. 14 hours a day for 6 months. Rebuilt the entire platform solo, better than any dev team built it. And the result isn't a demo — it's a machine that's been delivering results for clients for 8 years.

Y Combinator just added "AI-Native Agencies" to their Requests for Startups. The model they're describing is exactly what we've been living. Agencies that look like software companies, with software margins, scaled with AI infrastructure.

We were doing it before they named it. And now the market is catching up.

The Game's Not Over

The backlash isn't the end. It's the filter.

If you've been building real value, this is your moment. The tourists are leaving. The skepticism is clearing out the noise. And the companies that kept building while everyone else panicked are about to own the next decade.

The game's not over as long as there's time on the clock.

And trust me — there's a lot of time left.

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— Jaxon