IT pros aren’t anti-AI, they’re anti-hype
If there’s one lesson to be learned from 2025, it’s that IT professionals are finding AI hype tiresome. Last year, AI became unavoidable. Vendors slapped “AI-powered” on every single product that they could from ticketing systems to washing machines. Product launches promised massive productivity gains, instant expertise, and a future where work would somehow do itself. For a while, the AI hype worked but as the year went on, “AI” became just another buzzword.
AI adoption surged dramatically, with the Spiceworks State of IT 2026 Report showing current use jumping to 52 percent in 2025, up from just 23 percent in 2023. The industry’s obsession with AI was on full display at CES 2026. The world’s largest tech show once again revolved around artificial intelligence with AMD’s CEO, Lisa Su, making predictions about AI adoption exploding from one billion to five billion users within five years during the keynote.
Contrast that messaging though, with companies like Dell pulling back on AI-first marketing, acknowledging that aggressive AI branding has confused buyers more than it has convinced them. It’s a clear sign that the conversation around AI is changing, and that blind enthusiasm is being replaced with more grounded expectations.
From AI excitement to frustration
The general consensus across the Spiceworks Community is frustration with AI being everywhere. In a recent poll, users described AI as the trend they most want to leave behind in 2025. Not because the technology is useless, but because the way it has been pushed feels careless.
As Spiceuser Alawford puts it, “The industry has no idea what to do with it, but they are still taking up huge RAM resources and other resources which is sky-rocketing the prices for everyone else.” AI features are often bundled into tools whether customers asked for them or not which means prices rise and hardware requirements increase.
Spiceuser Marcel6452 shared a similar sentiment, “AI is a solution to a non existing problem just for big tech to increase their profit. For the average job it creates even more work to verify if the AI result isn’t a hallucination.”
Instead of saving time, poorly implemented AI can create extra steps since someone still has to check the output and fix the mistake if the model gets it wrong.
Despite these challenges, AI will still be a core technology in 2026
Despite the frustration, many Spiceworks members are still using AI regularly at work. They’re just doing it on their own terms in ways that make sense and add value.
Many IT professionals are still finding practical ways to use AI at work, even as enthusiasm around the hype fades. Instead of relying on it for full automation, users are applying AI to specific, high-value tasks like code optimization, design assistance, and troubleshooting, often using it to bypass time-consuming vendor support processes.
Others treat AI more like a thought partner, using it to brainstorm ideas or pressure-test decisions while remaining cautious about accuracy and maintaining human oversight. Some are also leveraging AI for more process-driven work, such as researching technical topics or refining emails and documentation to strike the right balance between clarity and approachability.
The one characteristic all of these use cases have in common is that they’re practical, boring, and effective. They also treat AI like a junior assistant that still needs supervision rather than trusting it blindly. These use cases are typically where AI fits best.
Consensus: The real problem is not AI, but rather how it’s used
While AI isn’t going anywhere, the era of blind enthusiasm might finally be behind us. Looking at all these perspectives on AI shows that the technology itself is often not the problem, but rather how it has been marketed, monetized, and forced into places it does not belong. IT professionals aren’t anti-AI, they’re anti-hype. They want AI tools that solve real problems and add real value without creating new ones.
As we move through 2026, the organizations that succeed with AI will likely be the ones that stop chasing headlines and start treating AI as infrastructure rather than a magic tool that solves all of the world’s problems with just a click.
What are your thoughts on AI? How are you using it in your day-to-day? Join the AI conversation on the Spiceworks Community!
