I was recently invited by a client to join an interview with a prospective "AI solutions provider". The consultant had no background in data analytics or engineering, with only some experience with 365 Copilot and a long corporate history of creating employee performance metrics reports (not associated with AI).

What surprised me wasn’t the lack of technical depth, but how impressed the decision-makers were with a jargon-filled PowerPoint. He was confidently pitching solutions for everything from automation to predictive modeling.

Has anyone else run into situations like this? Non-technical “AI experts” selling big promises to leadership teams? Did it actually lead to value or just expensive slideware?