A Gartner Hype Cycle is a graphical representation of the maturity and adoption of a technology, tracing it through five phases: Innovation Trigger, Peak of Inflated Expectations, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment and Plateau of Productivity.
Individual technologies are plotted on the curve with an estimated time to mainstream adoption.
Hype Cycle vs. vendor evaluation
The Hype Cycle assesses technologies and categories. It does not assess or position companies, and appearing "on" a Hype Cycle is a property of a category rather than a recognition of a vendor.
Why it matters
Where your category sits on the curve shapes how buyers read every claim you make about it.
A category climbing toward the peak makes ambitious claims sound credible and specific ones sound unambitious. The same claims made about a category in the trough sound like overreach. The words don't change; the reading does.
Related: Gartner Market Guide · Gartner Magic Quadrant
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