The news: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is warning of a growing AI investment bubble.

“Are we in a phase where investors are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes,” Altman said during a dinner with a group of reporters, per The Verge. Still, he emphasized that AI remains “the most important thing to happen in a very long time.”

A bubble to burst: While the AI bubble isn’t dominating headlines as it was a year ago, the risk hasn’t gone away. Companies and investors continue pouring money and resources into AI, often without clear business models or paths to ROI.

In January, DeepSeek’s explosion onto the scene sparked concerns about wasteful spending on model development and infrastructure. Meanwhile, Big Tech players like Amazon, Apple, and Meta are committing billions to AI, raising the stakes for earnings reports and inflating investors’ expectations.

Monetization issues: Altman compared AI investing to the tech bubble that burst in 2000, saying people got “overexcited about a kernel of truth.” That AI bubble warning isn’t just for the industry and may apply to OpenAI’s own balance sheet.

Despite being on track to surpass $20 billion in annual recurring revenues, OpenAI remains unprofitable, per CNBC. The company walks a delicate line between building more powerful models and keeping subscription prices low enough to maintain growth.

The hype isn’t just financial—it’s product driven: Looking beyond investor warnings and toward OpenAI’s future during his meeting with reporters, Altman pointed to growing internal interest in a standalone ChatGPT app that could power social experiences. It could also open up an avenue for ads and boost revenue streams.

A social ChatGPT could succeed where Meta AI’s app is struggling, though the same risks of hallucinations apply.

• Personalization is a core focus for ChatGPT, which is evolving into an AI agent that can search, shop, and recommend content based on user interactions and preferences. This technology could play into a smart feed that looks at users’ private queries and recommends relevant posts.
• ChatGPT could integrate the chatbot’s memory with real-time context to offer an X-like social network, where users can post their own queries publicly, write original posts, or create images with OpenAI’s DALL-E and Sora.

Our take: Altman’s warning about an AI bubble applies to marketers too. The temptation to chase every shiny new AI tool is real, but teams should develop an AI experimentation roadmap with clear outcomes to avoid wasting resources. Pushing vendors for case studies can help maximize budgets.