"Like Big Data, I think we'll see a few companies execute well and actually get some value, while most will just jump to the next shiny thing in a year or two."

Here's another aspect - in many places nobody listens to the actual people doing the work. In my last job I was hired to lead a Data Science team and to help the company get value of Stats/ML/AI/DL/Buzzword. And I (and my team) were promptly overridden on every decision of what projects an expectations were realistic and what were not. I left, as did everybody else that reported to me, and we were replaced by people who would make really good BS slides that showed what upper management wanted to see. A year after that the whole initiative was cancelled.

Back in 2000 I was in a similar position with a small company jumping on the internet as their next business model. Lots of nonsense and one horrible web based business later, the company failed.

It's the same story over and over again. Some winners, lot of losers, many by self-inflicted wounds.