Most AI takes age like milk

A short field guide to spotting hype before it spoils your roadmap.

Most AI takes age like milk. They're confident, loud, and off within a fortnight. A few age like wine. Telling them apart early saves you a roadmap.

The milk takes share a smell. They're about the model, not the job. They quote benchmarks no customer has ever asked about. They assume the demo is the product. And they always, always say 'this changes everything' — which is how you know it changes nothing you can use on Monday.

If a take only works in a demo, it's not a take. It's a magic trick.

The wine takes are boring on purpose. They start from a real workflow, name the failure mode, and tell you what still doesn't work. Honesty about limits is the single best signal that someone has actually shipped the thing.

Field test: could you act on it this week with the tools you already have? If not, let it spoil in someone else's fridge.