What Happened:
Searches for “AI bubble” have surged to record levels, reflecting growing skepticism that the rapid flood of AI investment can sustain its current pace.
Economists warn that valuations may be outpacing profits, matching the same pattern of the late-’90s dot-com era.
Venture capital funding in AI has surpassed $200 billion this year, while data-center investment has tripled since 2022, yet many brands have yet to see meaningful returns.
Our Take:
If the bubble bursts, the fundamentals of lifecyle marketing won’t. Just as the dot-com crash didn’t kill the internet, an AI correction won’t erase automation’s value. If you can actually use AI to create faster and better campaigns, you will outlast the hype cycle.
So how do you do this?
As one analyst told Channel Dive, “Every AI proposal must tie directly to measurable returns.”
For example, Whataburger and Taco Bell showed what that looks like in practice. Both brands mapped out their entire campaign workflow, then isolated just two tasks that slowed them down but didn’t require creative judgment:
Asset composition: converting final Figma designs into Braze campaigns.
Pre-launch QA: checking rendering, targeting, and deliverability.
By using off-the-shelf tools like n8n and Puppeteer, they automated these repetitive, rule-based steps while leaving offer strategy, copy, and brand voice untouched.
That’s the model lifecycle teams should follow during an AI bubble:
Audit your workflow. Identify where time and energy drain away from creativity. Automate the mechanical, not the meaningful.
Prove ROI.
Measure every pilot against real KPIs (faster campaign cycles, higher QA accuracy, fewer customer errors).