MARKET GAPS

Thursday, August 21, 2025
Editor: Omar Abed

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ESPRESSO SHOT

Morning, gap‑hunters.

Markets wobble on AI doubts. Your roadmap for creator ads just officially cracked. Fed signals are about to change budgets. No BS, just what shifted and what to do now.

GAP OF THE WEEK: AI’s 95-Percent Failure Rate

The hole: 

A new MIT study found that 95% of enterprise generative AI pilots fail to deliver financial returns, not because the models suck, but because they ignore workflows and cultural alignment.
(The Wall Street Journal)

The wedge: 

Focus pilots on high-ROI back-office cases like automation, or go external.

Tools built in-house only succeed one-third as often as vendor solutions.
(AInvest, The Financial Express)

Why now:

• Sam Altman admits AI might be in a bubble: investors are overexcited about a kernel of truth.

• AI hype is meeting execution reality.

Exit vision (this month):

• Audit your AI pilots by ROI source: back office or marketing.

• If internal builds are failing, pivot to partner tools.

• Set up one small workflow pilot this week with explicit targets: time saved, cost cut, or error reduced.

SPOTLIGHT: Market Shakes

• Tech sell-off continues: Nasdaq down over 1% as AI bubble fears grow and investors rotate off gains.
  (Reuters, Tildes, Christopher Sanchez | AI)

• Altman signals caution: AI bubble could emerge from overenthusiasm, not underlying tech.
  (Hacker News)

WEEK IN 3 TWEETS

1) “Support Small Business,” they said.

2) The gig economy is thriving, apparently

3) What if you stayed?

STAT OF THE DAY

95%: AI pilot failure rate in enterprise. The public numbers are real and sobering.

TURBO HEADLINES

• MIT report: 95% of GenAI pilots fail to show ROI.

• Tech index slide deepens amid AI doubt sweats.

• Altman says investors are “overexcited” about AI.
  

CLOSING LOOP

Forward this to the team doing AI pilots for the sake of buzz.