I can't pinpoint the exact moment when genuine enthusiasm for a new technology crosses into hype, then into outright eye-rolling territory. But I’m fairly sure we’re getting there when a sandwich chain featuring Danny DeVito as its celebrity face starts talking about artificial intelligence in its IPO filing. That’s exactly what Jersey Mike’s has done.

Given the current investor frenzy around all things AI, it’s easy to see why tech companies feel compelled to sprinkle that magic dust over their pitches. This trend isn’t limited to startups raising venture capital; it also applies to companies like Bending Spoons, which specializes in buying older, non-AI tech firms and revitalizing them. Out of curiosity, I decided to check how far this compulsion might extend by examining Jersey Mike’s IPO documents. Surely, a sandwich shop wouldn’t need to mention AI in its S-1 filing.

But there it was. The term "artificial intelligence" and its acronym "AI" appeared 22 times. Now, Jersey Mike’s can’t claim to be selling AI software—it sells submarine sandwiches. Yet AI products are what investors are truly hungry for (terrible pun absolutely intended). Despite this, the company found a way to mention AI in its investor risk warnings. That might be even more amusing. The filing doesn’t explain exactly what AI applications could pose a danger to investors, beyond the vague statement: "We are beginning to use AI Technologies in our business."

To be fair, as a franchise operator, Jersey Mike’s does rely on software (mentioned 52 times) and data (112 mentions), like most modern businesses. Its AI risk warning was boilerplate language—perhaps even necessary, given that similar disasters have already hit other food companies. For example, Starbucks rolled out a half-baked AI inventory tool that couldn’t count properly and was recently scrapped.

Still, I’ll go out on a limb and predict that the risk of an AI catastrophe for a company making real-life sandwiches—not AI slop—is roughly the same as a franchise location getting struck by lightning. That actually happened to a shop in Texas back in 2021. Yet weather was only mentioned five times in the S-1. And lightning? Not once.