This Week in Business Balancing Optimism and Caution in Innovation and Business Strategy
Sep 24, 2025
Cait Lamberton, Wharton School Vice Dean and Professor of Marketing, shares her insights on the delicate balance between excitement and caution in adopting AI. She discusses how people often overestimate new technologies and how marketing hype can skew perceptions. Cait draws parallels between today's AI boom and the dot-com era, cautioning against risky investments. She emphasizes the importance of stable business fundamentals and highlights that diversified firms are better equipped to navigate rapid changes, while startups risk peril if they go all-in on AI.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
First Impressions Mislead
- Humans often overvalue first impressions of new technologies the same way they idealize great first dates.
- Expectation management matters because early enthusiasm masks later, realistic differences.
Hype And Early Adopter Bias
- Buzz and marketing amplify perceived value while early adopters give rosier feedback than later users will.
- That combination can create an inflated sense of a technology's immediate usefulness.
Question Claims That Everything Changes
- Slow down when someone claims 'everything is changing' and test that claim against human and market continuities.
- Use historical lessons to temper immediate enthusiasm before committing resources.