Similar experience; a lot of laypeople seem to be viewing it as world changing magic, whereas that view is far more niche in tech.
This feels like a common pattern; a few years back many of my non-tech friends believed self-driving cars were coming imminently, whereas ~no-one working in tech believed that.
Company execs sure did. "Autonomous vehicles" is the mirage that Uber, Waymo and others dangled in front of investors and press for years. Can't blame the public for not figuring out that it was a fig leaf to paper over their eye-watering losses.
People working in tech believed this. Hell, people directly working on the tech seemed to think this a few years ago, and are only now admitting reality.
Of course, one tends to be optimistic of these things when they work on them.
