Jersey Mike’s IPO illustrates how bad the AI hype has become

The Sandwich Singularity

I usually spend my time looking at Layer 2 throughput, tokenomics, or the latest LLM benchmarks. But sometimes, a piece of news comes along that is so absurdly indicative of our current market cycle that I have to stop and stare. The recent IPO filings from Jersey Mike’s are that signal. We have officially reached the point where selling ham and cheese sandwiches requires a detailed artificial intelligence strategy to satisfy Wall Street.

If you have been in the tech space long enough, you recognize this pattern. In 2017, companies were adding "Blockchain" to their names to get a 200% stock bump. In the early 2000s, it was the ".com" suffix. Today, it is the mandatory inclusion of AI in a S-1 filing, even if your primary business involves a slicer and a loaf of bread. For founders and builders, this isn't just a funny headline; it is a clear warning about the dilutive nature of hype and the incoming correction for anything that doesn't provide actual utility.

The Mandatory Buzzword Tax

When you look at the Jersey Mike’s documents, the inclusion of AI feels like a tax. It is a linguistic ritual companies perform to prove they aren't "legacy." The filing suggests that machine learning will optimize staffing, predict bread freshness, or maybe guess exactly how much vinegar you want on your sub. But let’s be honest: they are selling sandwiches. They have been selling sandwiches quite successfully since the 1950s without a neural network.

For those of us building real AI tools, this is frustrating. It creates a boy-who-cried-wolf scenario. When every dry cleaner and sub shop claims to be an AI-powered enterprise, the term loses all meaning. It makes it harder for legitimate founders to differentiate their deep-tech breakthroughs from a basic database query labeled as "predictive analytics."

What This Means for Tech Founders

If you are a builder right now, you might feel the pressure to lean into the hype to get funded. The temptation to pivot your deck toward "Generative AI for [Insert Niche]" is real. But the Jersey Mike’s moment tells us that we are at the top of the curve. When the least technical businesses on the planet are using your terminology to justify their valuation, the premium for that terminology is about to evaporate.

We are entering a phase where "AI" will no longer be a value prop; it will be an assumption. In the same way that no one lists "electricity" or "the internet" as a competitive advantage in 2024, AI is becoming a baseline utility. If your startup’s primary pitch is that you use AI, you are in a race to the bottom against every other company—including the ones making sandwiches.

The Utility Trap

The real danger for builders is falling into the utility trap. Many companies are adding AI features just to say they have them, rather than solving a specific pain point. In the case of a fast-casual restaurant, is an AI-driven inventory system really better than a manager with ten years of experience? Maybe marginally. But is it worth the technical debt, the privacy concerns, and the increased overhead? Usually not.

Founder Perspective: Build for the Lull

History shows that after the hype peaks, there is a long, cold winter. The winners of the next decade won't be the companies that rode the AI wave to an IPO today. They will be the builders who utilized the tech to solve problems that couldn't be solved before. Jersey Mike’s doesn't need AI to be a great sandwich shop; they need fresh ingredients and fast service. Similarly, your product needs to stand on its own feet without the crutch of a trendy acronym.

• Focus on the core: If the AI was stripped away tomorrow, would your users still pay you?
• Avoid the buzzword arms race: The more common the term becomes, the less it helps your valuation.
• Solve, don't simulate: Use technology to fix a broken process, not to decorate a pitch deck.

The Coming Shakeout

When sub shops start filing IPOs with AI as a cornerstone of their growth strategy, the market is usually months away from demanding actual receipts. Investors will soon stop asking "How are you using AI?" and start asking "Why aren't you profitable yet?" The pivot from growth-at-all-costs (fueled by hype) to sustainable unit economics is always painful, and we are right on the doorstep of that shift.

For the crypto and AI builders I talk to every day, my advice remains the same: keep your head down. Ignore the public market theater. If Jersey Mike’s wants to pretend they are a tech company, let them. Your job is to build the infrastructure that actually moves the needle, not the marketing fluff that fills a prospectus.

The ultimate irony of the AI boom is that the more ubiquitous the technology becomes, the more we will value the things that are undeniably human—like a hand-made sandwich.

We are seeing a total saturation of the narrative. When the noise reaches this volume, it is usually the best time to stop talking and start shipping. The builders who survive the next two years will be the ones who treated AI as a tool, not a savior. If your business model looks like a sandwich shop with a "GPT" sticker slapped on the window, you might get a quick exit, but you won't build a legacy.

Read the original at TechCrunch AI →