#93 The Most Misunderstood AI Statistic of the Year: Lessons from Tech Expo on Hype, Failure, and Innovation

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In our final episode of 2025, we sit down with Tim Van Erum to unpack what really stood out at Tech Expo Amsterdam.

Together we revisit the most misunderstood AI statistic of the year, exploring why the “95% of AI projects fail” headline is misleading and how hype versus reality played out across the conference. Tim shares why failure and experimentation are not setbacks but essential drivers of innovation, and we highlight Reddit’s Scaling Safety strategy as a powerful example of machine learning in action.

This candid conversation closes out the year with lessons on what AI truly delivered in 2025.

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1. Welcome And Tim’s New Role (00:00:00)

2. What The Tech Expo Covered (00:03:20)

3. Two Currents: Hype vs. Real-World AI (00:07:25)

4. The MIT Study And Misread Metrics (00:14:10)

5. Reddit’s ML For Community Safety (00:22:10)

6. Cost, Filters, And Fine-Tuning Tradeoffs (00:32:40)

7. PepsiCo: Replacing Reports With AI Consoles (00:39:20)

8. Text-To-SQL Limits And Governance (00:48:00)

9. When AI Interfaces Beat BI Dashboards (00:55:40)