Every age thinks it has found the password to the Future. Its occupants flaunt it with the chutzpah of chimpanzees, at conferences, seminars while aggressively wolfing down curated trays of canapés. The new future has been AI-ing for some time now. No article, party conversation, proud podcast, keynote address, TED talk, government policy paper or a startup pitch deck is perfect sans the ‘AI’ word. Generative AI is cocktail garnish like the cilantro on Indian food when the chef is just showing off. As of early 2026, ChatGPT had generated in excess of 618 million searches on a monthly basis across the globe, and was one of the most searched terms in the planet. Its competitors—Gemini, DeepSeek, Perplexity—are not far behind.
Artificial Intelligence is not just a technology story today; it is a social performance—politicians invoking it to seem contemporary: think AI Summits mushrooming internationally, CEOs invoking it to thrill investors and pitchers, journalists scattering it in copy to avoid writing about infrastructure or public health. This is not the first time the world has been high on a trending idea. History is littered with obsessions of yesterday. Not long ago, it was ‘sustainability’. Oil companies suddenly loved windmills, airlines saved the earth with compostable spoons and luxury hotel chains were asking guests to reuse towels in an effort to save the Himalayan glacier system. The term showed up everywhere like ghosts in a movie: in annual reports, on shampoo bottles, and in real estate brochures. The mega fossil fuel companies were charged by Greta Thunberg plait-alikes with “greenwashing”. Until Gaza came along.
The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter described capitalism as a process of “creative destruction”; meaning waves of innovation that periodically reorganise the economy. The late 1990s believed the future had arrived early with the magic password “the internet”. Companies added “.com” to their names and their stock prices hit the roof and zoomed off. Investors poured billions into startups that had little more than a website and a logo. But the dotcom bubble burst followed. But quietly the internet itself kept growing; transforming communication, commerce, and culture. The hype collapsed but the technology stayed. Sneaker-sporting startup-punks became dotcom billionaires overnight, backed by venture capitalists. Cities organised “innovation summits”. Governments announced “startup missions”. College students were told that they should not even bother with degrees: just grab a Coke and disrupt something. Disruptions did occur, mostly in Uber and food delivery. More recently Metaverse made its grand entrance, confidently touted as the foregone next phase in human civilisation. Soon enough, neo-experts proclaimed mankind will work and socialise and shop and maybe get married in virtual worlds. They wore a headset for a few minutes, got dizzy and deaf and went back to scrolling through Instagram.
And so, here is Artificial Intelligence, the cosy chatbot of contemporary anxiety. Unlike some earlier fads, it is actually real and really powerful. It will transform industries and professions in ways we cannot anticipate. But the familiar patina of hype theatre isn’t missing. “AI will destroy humanity.” “It will save humanity.” “AI-driven solutions.” “AI-powered futures.” “AI-first strategies.” The average Joe like you and me, so far, is using it to write emails and generate LinkedIn posts. This insanity is less about technology and more about psychology. Historians of technology such as David Edgerton have long pointed out that societies often talk far more about technologies than they actually use. Blockchain illustrated that observation perfectly. Every TV chat show, conclave panel or interview featured at least one person predicting blockchain would transform elections, medicine, art, supply chains, marriage and the afterlife. What it produced were cryptocurrencies named after dogs.
One infallible inch tape of a trend is the cocktail party test. If a technology gets to be something people confidently discuss over their second glass of wine although they know nothing about it, consider it has achieved cultural phenomenon status. A dinner guest today might casually drop the savvy sentence: “Certainly, with agentic AI and the LLM architectures, the paradigm is shifting completely.” No one asks what it means but everyone in the room nods gravely. The AI hysteria will dial down one day, as all such hysterias always do. However, the technology’s useful components will slowly weave into everyday life over time and the farrago fades fast. We know this about electricity, the internet, smart phones and every other technological revolution. The future never arrives quite the way the conferences imagine, although the conferences, make no mistake, will proceed with a new word at the ready, always and forever. After AI, it could be ‘quantum consciousness’, ‘synthetic humanity’ or ‘interplanetary wellness’. Whatever it is, the panel discussions are already heating up. Guess what, somewhere a bot is getting a PowerPoint on it ready.