Analyst firm Gartner has published its annual hype cycles for cloud technology and enterprise networking, and both suggest cooling your jets rather than rushing towards AI-powered tools to power your technology.

Hype Cycles assess expectations for emerging technologies, as they transition from being created as a result of an "innovation trigger" and then rising to a "peak of inflated expectations" before often settling into a "trough of disillusionment" as they have proven to be less amazing than predicted. Emerging technologies climb an "enlightenment slope" before reaching a "productivity plateau" where they are mature, widely applicable, and comfortably adopted by mainstream organizations. Technologies do not always reach the plateau – many instead become obsolete.

Gartner's 2024 Hype Cycle for Enterprise Networking rates AI networks and network AI assistants as having reached peak hype.

The former are interactive digital assistants that offer a conversational interface to offer NetAdmins what Gartner describes as "actionable network insights and help with network operational tasks." Gartner rates them as immature, tied to specific vendors and therefore not useful across networks, and likely to be ignored by network professionals who tend to be risk-averse—an instinct that kicks in when AIs make suggestions without explanation.