Should you join the AI hype train?

I was listening to a podcast featuring Furqan Rydhan, an entrepreneur who’s built and sold multiple companies, becoming a billionaire along the way. He shared a piece of wisdom that really hit home:

“People underestimate how long it will take and overestimate how fast it will happen”

He was talking about technology adoption, and I’ve experienced this firsthand. Years ago, I started a quantum computing startup during a wave of hype around the field. The buzz was everywhere—headlines, conferences, investor interest—but within a year, it fizzled out. No one was talking about it anymore, largely because crypto was booming at the time and stole the spotlight.

People flooded into quantum computing, seeing an opportunity, but underestimated the reality: it would take a decade or more for the technology to mature.

I’ve seen this play out in other ways too. Back in 2017, I built an AI bot for one of my university lecturers. It used training data from our Moodle to answer Q&A. At the time, IBM Watson was considered cutting-edge AI.

It was terrible.

So bad, in fact, that I dismissed AI as being too far off to bother with. Fast-forward seven years, and I’m kicking myself for giving up on it so quickly. Friends who stayed in the AI space are now reaping huge rewards.

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The problem is, by the time I realised AI was a big deal, it had already taken off. Sure, there are still opportunities now, but those who were patient—who stayed in the game when things were slow—were the ones ready to capitalise when the explosion happened.

This is exactly what Furqan meant by “overestimate how fast it will happen.” When a breakthrough hits, it moves with lightning speed. Just look at how quickly ChatGPT reached 1 million users—it was almost instant. The lesson? Be patient, and don’t write off what seems slow-moving today. The payoff could come faster than you think, but only if you’re still in the game.

Sometimes, we need to adopt technologies early and have the patience to stick with them. When the tides change, they often do so rapidly, and those who are prepared with the right skills and knowledge are the ones who benefit the most.

That’s why I’m currently exploring what could be the next big shift. I might be completely off the mark, but trying to spot it early and learning about it is half the fun.

Happy trend hunting!

Until next time,
Ajay