HomeJersey Mike’s IPO reveals AI hype’s absurdity
I can't pinpoint the exact moment when genuine excitement about a new technology turns into hype and then into an oh, come on moment—but I'm pretty sure that when a sandwich shop with Danny DeVito as its public face mentions AI in its IPO documents, we're getting close.
That's exactly the case with Jersey Mike's.
Given investors' insatiable appetite for anything AI these days, I understand why tech companies feel compelled to sprinkle AI buzzwords all over their pitches. This applies equally to non-AI startups raising venture capital and to Bending Spoons' public debut—a company that buys aging, "not-AI" tech companies to rehabilitate.
Just for fun, I looked at Jersey Mike's IPO documents to see how far this compulsion might go. Surely a sandwich shop wouldn't need to mention AI in its S-1. But lo and behold!
The term "artificial intelligence" and its acronym "AI" appeared 22 times. In this case, the company can't claim to be selling AI software. It sells submarine sandwiches. AI products are what investors are truly hungry for (terrible pun intended).
Still, it managed to mention AI in its investor risk warnings. That might be even funnier. It doesn't explain what it's using AI for that could pose a risk to investors, beyond a vague phrase: "We are beginning to use AI Technologies in our business."
To be fair, as a company that operates franchisees, it does rely on software (mentioned 52 times) and data (112 mentions), like any business. Its AI risk warning was boilerplate language, perhaps even necessary, given that similar disasters have already occurred in other food businesses—such as the half-baked AI inventory tool Starbucks launched, which couldn't count and was recently scrapped.
Still, I'll go out on a limb and predict that the risk of an AI disaster for a company making real sandwiches—not AI slop—is roughly the same as a franchise shop getting struck by lightning. That actually happened to a shop in Texas in 2021, by the way. Yet weather was mentioned only five times in the S-1. And lightning? Not once.
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I can't pinpoint the exact moment when genuine excitement about a new technology turns into hype and then into an oh, come on moment—but I'm pretty sure that when a sandwich shop with Danny DeVito as its public face mentions AI in its IPO documents, we're getting close.
That's exactly the case with Jersey Mike's.
Given investors' insatiable appetite for anything AI these days, I understand why tech companies feel compelled to sprinkle AI buzzwords all over their pitches. This applies equally to non-AI startups raising venture capital and to Bending Spoons' public debut—a company that buys aging, "not-AI" tech companies to rehabilitate.
Just for fun, I looked at Jersey Mike's IPO documents to see how far this compulsion might go. Surely a sandwich shop wouldn't need to mention AI in its S-1. But lo and behold!
The term "artificial intelligence" and its acronym "AI" appeared 22 times. In this case, the company can't claim to be selling AI software. It sells submarine sandwiches. AI products are what investors are truly hungry for (terrible pun intended).
Still, it managed to mention AI in its investor risk warnings. That might be even funnier. It doesn't explain what it's using AI for that could pose a risk to investors, beyond a vague phrase: "We are beginning to use AI Technologies in our business."
To be fair, as a company that operates franchisees, it does rely on software (mentioned 52 times) and data (112 mentions), like any business. Its AI risk warning was boilerplate language, perhaps even necessary, given that similar disasters have already occurred in other food businesses—such as the half-baked AI inventory tool Starbucks launched, which couldn't count and was recently scrapped.
Still, I'll go out on a limb and predict that the risk of an AI disaster for a company making real sandwiches—not AI slop—is roughly the same as a franchise shop getting struck by lightning. That actually happened to a shop in Texas in 2021, by the way. Yet weather was mentioned only five times in the S-1. And lightning? Not once.
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