I can’t pinpoint the precise moment when genuine enthusiasm for a novel technology shifts to inflated hype, reaching the point of oh-come-on — yet I’m convinced when a sandwich establishment featuring Danny DeVito as its spokesperson references AI in its IPO paperwork, we must be nearing that point.

Enter Jersey Mike’s.

Given the investor appetite for anything AI-related these days, it’s clear why tech firms feel compelled to spread AI allure throughout their presentations. This applies equally to non-AI startups seeking venture capital as it does to Bending Spoons’ market entry, a firm focused on acquiring outdated, “non-AI” tech companies to revamp.

For fun, I examined Jersey Mike’s IPO documents to gauge how far this trend might extend. Surely a sandwich shop wouldn’t need to reference AI in its S-1. But surprise!

The phrase artificial intelligence and its abbreviation “AI” appeared 22 times. In this situation, the company cannot allege it’s selling AI software. It offers submarine sandwiches. AI offerings are what investors are genuinely craving (terrible pun intended).

Still, it managed to incorporate AI into its investor risk disclosures. That might be even more amusing. It fails to clarify how AI could pose a threat to investors, other than a vague statement, “We are starting to utilize AI Technologies in our operations.”

To be fair, as a franchise operator, it indeed depends on software (mentioned 52 times) and data (112 mentions), as all enterprises do. Its AI risk warning was standard copy, potentially even required, since such failures have already occurred in other food sectors, like the poorly designed AI inventory system Starbucks deployed, which couldn’t count and was ultimately discarded.

Nevertheless, I’m going to venture a prediction that the likelihood of an AI-related catastrophe for a business that makes actual sandwiches, rather than AI nonsense, is roughly comparable to a franchise store being struck by lightning. That incident actually took place in Texas in 2021. Yet weather was only referenced five times in the S-1. And lightning? Not at all.