Every AI agency sells "no hype" now. "No bullshit." "Measurable results, not experiments." "Production-ready, not prototyping." The phrase used to mean something. In May 2026 it's commodity language: every consultancy says it, every landing page repeats it, and saying it tells you exactly nothing about who can actually build something that survives the next vendor pricing change.
I run a small AI and webdesign agency on Mallorca. I write this knowing I've used the same anti-hype phrases on our own site. They worked for about eighteen months. They've stopped working now, and the reason is worth pulling apart, because the deeper question underneath them is the one most prospective customers should actually be asking. It isn't about hype. It's about lock-in.
The Anti-Hype Class of 2026
The global AI consulting market hit $14B in 2026 and is projected to reach $116B by 2035, a 26% compound growth rate. That sounds like a rising tide. What the headline doesn't say is that the market is splitting hard. Deloitte and Accenture and Cognizant own the enterprise top. A long tail of boutique specialists owns the niche bottom. The middle, the generalist mid-sized agency that did "websites and a bit of AI," is disappearing.
