AI.com, an artificial intelligence platform founded by Kris Marszalek, co-founder and chief executive officer of Crypto.com, suffered a temporary outage during Super Bowl 60 after airing a national television advertisement. The 30-second commercial ran during the fourth quarter and encouraged viewers to create a handle on the AI.com website. The surge of traffic following the ad overwhelmed the platform, rendering it inaccessible for a period of time.
Marszalek acknowledged the outage on X, attributing it to unexpectedly high demand. “Insane traffic levels. We prepared for scale, but not for THIS,” he wrote, adding three fire emojis.
Insane traffic levels. We prepared for scale, but not for THIS 🔥🔥🔥
— Kris | ai.com (@kris) February 9, 2026
Users quickly took to social media to complain about the crash, with reactions spreading across platforms as viewers attempted to access the site immediately after the ad aired.
Once service was restored, AI.com allowed users to register and create personal AI agents designed to operate autonomously on their behalf. According to the company, these agents are intended to handle tasks such as organizing work, sending messages, executing actions across applications, and building projects without continuous human input.
Agent-Based Platform Strategy
AI.com said its platform differentiates itself through agents that can identify missing capabilities and autonomously build new features to complete real-world tasks. The company said those improvements can then be shared across its broader network, increasing functionality for all users over time. This approach aligns with a broader industry shift toward agent-based AI systems capable of operating across multiple applications rather than responding to single prompts.
The Super Bowl ad represented AI.com’s most visible marketing effort to date and placed it alongside established technology companies competing for attention during one of the world’s most watched broadcasts. While the outage highlighted operational challenges, the volume of traffic suggested strong consumer curiosity about AI services positioned as personal digital assistants rather than standalone tools.
AI Dominates Super Bowl Advertising
AI.com’s appearance added to an unusually large presence of artificial intelligence advertising during the Super Bowl. Companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Amazon also aired commercials promoting their AI platforms and services. According to data from iSpot, 23% of Super Bowl advertisers, or 15 of the 66 ads shown during the game, promoted AI-related products or companies.
The trend reflects growing competition among AI providers to establish brand recognition as the technology moves beyond enterprise and developer audiences toward mainstream consumers. Several advertisers used simplified calls to action aimed at broad audiences. Squarespace, for example, encouraged viewers to claim domain names during its Super Bowl spot, a strategy similar to AI.com’s prompt to create a handle.
