Forrester says AI hype is fading because vendor promises don't match delivered value. Shocking... or overdue?

General
1

Let me tell you about three AI vendor experiences from the last 18 months.

Vendor A (AI Code Assistant): Demo showed ‘10x productivity gains.’ Our actual measured improvement: 18%. Still valuable, but not 10x.

Vendor B (AI Customer Service): Promised ‘80% automation.’ Reality: 35% automation, plus 3 months of custom integration they said would take ‘a few days.’

Vendor C (AI Data Platform): Marketed as ‘plug-and-play.’ Actual implementation: 6 months, 00K in professional services.

Forrester predicts enterprises will defer 25% of AI spend to 2027 because the gap between vendor promises and delivered value is forcing a reality check.

My reaction: It’s about time.

I’ll share my new vendor evaluation process, red flags to watch for, and how this market correction is actually healthy long-term. What’s your AI vendor horror story?

2

Michelle, this is why I have trust issues with AI vendors. We budgeted 00K, spent 30K due to hidden costs and professional services. Now we demand usage-based pricing with caps, performance guarantees in contracts, and proof of customer success before large commitments. I’ll share our contract terms.

3

The vendor promises vs reality gap is even worse when you dig into technical details. Vendors show ‘95% accuracy’ on cherry-picked data. On our actual messy data: 60%. I now require blind evaluation with our representative data, performance on different segments, and error analysis showing where models fail.