On the promise of exponential efficiency and productivity, we rushed headlong into AI.

The narrative was seductive: sharper output, leaner teams, unstoppable growth. But five years in, the truth has been sobering – those costs didn’t vanish. They shifted.

We moved resources from skilled humans to glittering tools that dazzled in demos but didn’t fully deliver on their promise.

The irony is painful: Those humans we treated as expendable were vital. They caught the nuance, connected the dots, infused empathy, and quietly stitched excellence together behind the scenes.

And this would be funny if it weren’t so expensive.

At one point, we could easily get fourteen media articles published in a month with a small but committed team. Now, with all our AI assistants and automation dashboards, we’ve struggled to finish even one.

This isn’t just my story. It’s a familiar one for anyone who has built something under the gleam of Silicon Valley’s promises. What’s often sold is sizzle that isn’t fully substantiated – soaring projections and a vision of effortless scale. And while a few people walk away with billions, most of us are left holding the bag, quietly reckoning with the hard lessons about what really drives meaningful progress.

The lesson isn’t to reject AI. It’s to demand more honesty about what it takes to make it work so we can shape a wiser future. If we honor the humans-in-the-loop as the heartbeat who make excellence possible and invite AI to amplify – not replace – their capabilities, the promise of innovation can move from sizzle to substance.

The next chapter of this story doesn’t have to be another cautionary tale. It can be a turning point—one where sizzle finally meets substance.