AI is one of those domain trends that makes sense right away, which is probably why it is so easy to overdo.
The category is real. Companies are being built around AI, products are launching every day, and money is flowing into the space. Buyers are looking for names that fit tools, agents, automation, and a long list of verticals.
So this is not an argument against AI domains. Some AI names are clearly valuable. Some investors bought early and bought well, and some of those names will probably continue to look smart for a long time.
But I do think the AI boom has made some domainers a little lazy.
I have caught myself doing it too. You look at a name you already own and suddenly there is an AI angle that maybe was not there when you bought it. A name that used to be a general tech name is now an AI tool name. A brandable that had no obvious buyer is now an agent platform. Maybe it is. Or maybe the explanation just got easier.
That is the part worth paying attention to. AI can make a good domain more timely. It does not automatically make a weak domain good. It does not fix awkward wording or create buyers where there are none. The keyword alone is not enough.
We have seen versions of this before with crypto, NFT, web3. Some people made real money. They owned strong names at the right time and sold into real demand. Others bought anything close to the trend and ended up renewing names that only made sense during the hype cycle.
AI is different in one important way. I do think it has more staying power than most of those trends. It is not just one niche or one type of company. It is becoming part of how software, services, and just about every business category will work.
That still does not mean every AI-related domain is a good domain.
There is a big difference between a name that fits how companies are actually naming AI products and a name that only sounds AI-ish to another domainer. That is where I think we need to be more honest with ourselves. Would a real company put this name on their homepage? Would the name still make sense if the AI label became less exciting?
The best AI-related names are not good only because of AI. They are good names that AI made more relevant.
A strong name can survive outside the trend. It can work for software, analytics, automation, infrastructure, whatever the next thing turns out to be. It does not need the hype to explain its value. A weaker name needs the hype to stay alive, and hype is not a great renewal strategy.
I think this is where a lot of investors can get caught. Nobody wants to miss the category that might define the next decade. If AI is producing companies, funding, tools, and buyers, it makes sense that domainers want exposure to it. But chasing a category is not the same thing as understanding it.
If anything, AI should make us more selective, not less. More activity means more opportunity, but it also means more noise. A lot of average names are going to be dressed up as AI names. A lot of portfolios are going to look better on paper because the descriptions got better.
The question is not whether AI is real. It is. The question is whether the domain is real. Does it stand on its own without a paragraph explaining why AI makes it matter?
I am not sure I always know the answer to that, even on names I own.