In Case You Missed It: No Holidays for Euro Startup Teams, AI Transforming SaaS and the UK Plays Catch Up with Data Centres

Welcome to ICYMI – a weekly snapshot of European news stories that have given me pause for thought. ICYMI is a chance for you to go beyond the front-page headlines and find out what other stories may be worthy of your attention. This week:

• Is the Internet now a wild west of AI generated content?
• Why the AI recruitment revolution is over before it even started
• Is software the new ‘fast fashion’?

It is mid-August traditionally the time when much of Europe packs its bags for summer climes. Not though if you work for a technology startup. 

Sifted reports that this year a growing number of European tech founders and investors are ditching the traditional summer slowdown to keep pace with the relentless speed of Silicon Valley – especially in the AI space. Startups are still raising funds, launching products, and shipping features, driven by competition with US companies and FOMO from rapidly moving AI deals. While some founders still value rest, many acknowledge that sustainability must now be balanced with the reality of AI’s fast-moving landscape.  

Fred Bardolle, head of AI product at cloud service provider Scalesway says his team cannot afford to switch off this summer, especially with new AI models, like OpenAI’s GPT-5, being regularly released from the US. “If you want to be in the race, you have to put the model on your platform within days. You have to put it in the hand of your user, or you will lose them. You cannot wait for the summer to be over,” he says. “We have to keep the pace because if you don’t, another company will.” 

Have the bots won the web? 

As if disrupting tech workers’ holidays wasn’t enough, AI is also continuing to reshape the internet. This prompted Les Echos in France to look once again at the dead internet theory. 

According to its proponents, a growing portion of the web is powered by content created by robots: comments, videos, virtual influencers such as Aitana Lopez. The phenomenon is amplified by the explosion of bots: according to Imperva, nearly half of all web traffic no longer comes from humans. 

While the theory remains exaggerated, it points to real abuses: artificial clicks on Spotify or YouTube, advertising fraud on Facebook and Instagram, and the spread of automated propaganda. These practices undermine trust in audiences and threaten the credibility of platforms. But they also reveal a paradox: behind these manipulations, the internet remains alive and well, driven by millions of real creators, journalists, and influencers. 

AI is disrupting the status quo by making content abundant and inexpensive. The challenge is to avoid commoditisation that erodes the perceived value of digital. For brands and digital players for example, this is an opportunity to reaffirm authenticity, focus on human creativity and demonstrate that AI can reinforce – rather than replace – trust and value.  

Is software the new fast fashion? 

Along with the impact AI is having on the web and the media this summer’s other growing debate has been the future of software. Handelsblatt in Germany asks the question, Is AI turning software into fast fashion? 

It points to how the Nasdaq has recently hit record highs, yet software providers like SAP, Salesforce, and Monday.com have lost billions in market value. The reason: fear that AI could disrupt their SaaS business model. OpenAI’s Sam Altman compared it to fast fashion: just as H&M reshaped retail with cheap, mass-produced styles, AI could enable companies to spin up custom software quickly and at low cost. 

This raises the big question: Is SaaS really at risk of being replaced – or can AI actually strengthen the model? The debate is wide open: for PR and thought leadership, it is a chance to explore both the dangers of commoditised software and the opportunities of AI-driven innovation. 

AI is also starting to have a surprising impact on the world of recruitment. In The Netherlands Werf+ has noticed an interesting trend – a decline in job postings. 

Apparently, the explosion of AI-generated job applications has led to  many recruiters being overwhelmed by irrelevant or spam-like CVs, often from underqualified candidates. As a result, some recruiters are opting out of public job postings altogether, reverting to traditional methods like direct outreach and networking. 

This shift reveals a growing trust crisis in digital hiring processes, sparked by generative AI. It highlights a clear opportunity for B2B tech clients offering authenticity validation, talent matching, AI transparency, and applicant screening solutions to position themselves as providers of solutions that help balance AI-driven scale with human judgment. This trend also signals a renewed demand for human-centric, high-trust platforms, an angle teams can leverage to position clients as leaders in ethical AI and recruiting innovation. 

The UK ramps up its data centre capacity  

In the UK the BBC is reporting that the government is set to expand its number of data centres by nearly 20%, with almost 100 new facilities planned – driven largely by AI-related processing needs. While the government deems these centres “critical infrastructure”, experts and residents are raising concerns over their heavy energy and water consumption, especially as some new centres will be serviced by already struggling Thames Water. Major projects include a £10bn Blackstone facility in Blyth and multi-million-pound sites by Microsoft and Google, prompting debate over sustainability and potential cost impacts for consumers.