Silicon Valley is still all in on AI, but people are starting to ask when the music stops

The story

San Francisco Tech Week wrapped up this month with the biggest turnout it has ever had. More than 50,000 people showed up across roughly 1,500 events, and the host said attendance has more than doubled since it started running the week in the city.

AI was everywhere. Organizers counted more than 200 events in San Francisco that mentioned AI agents, the kind of software that can take actions on its own. Two years ago there were only about a dozen.

Talk to people on the ground, though, and the feeling is more mixed than the numbers suggest. Plenty of founders and investors are thrilled about what the technology can do. Many of them are also wondering when the money and the hype might slow down, and who will be left standing when it does.

The big question has shifted. It is no longer about who can build something with AI, since that keeps getting easier. It is about who can turn it into a real business that customers keep paying for. Investors say they now care more about actual usage and solid numbers than about big promises.

For now the boom is still going strong, and it is pushing up office demand and rents in the city. But the excitement comes with a little more caution than it did a year ago.