How a Viral AI Startup Feud Exposed Tech's New Attention Economy - Business Insider
PushButton AI Team ·
How a Viral AI Startup Feud Exposed Tech's New Attention Economy - Business Insider
Two AI startup founders went viral last week fighting over market share.
Tens of millions in funding. A social media war. Zero mention of whether their product actually works.
That right there is th
Two AI startup founders went viral last week fighting over market share.
Tens of millions in funding. A social media war. Zero mention of whether their product actually works.
That right there is the AI attention economy in a nutshell.
You have probably seen this pattern. Big promises, flashy demos, then a subscription that quietly charges you $200 a month while your team keeps using the old spreadsheet. The noise is designed to create urgency, not clarity. And the people making the most noise usually have the least skin in your game.
Here is what the feud actually reveals: AI companies are competing for your attention, not your results. When founders are busy fighting each other on social media, they are not solving your customer service backlog or your quoting process. That is your signal to stop watching the drama and start asking a different question.
Instead of asking "which AI tool is best," ask "which one task, if automated this week, would save my team five hours?" Start there. One task. One tool. Thirty days to prove it works.
That is how you get your first real win without touching anything that already runs.
What is the one repetitive task in your business that quietly eats the most time each week?
Both startups are targeting users in the developing world. That tens of millions of dollars have gone to such young founders working in such nascent ...
