In our contribution we explore the tension between hype and responsibility in the communication of AI research in Germany, focusing on how engineers perceive and navigate this dynamic. Through qualitative interviews and a co-creative Lego Serious Play workshop with engineers, social scientists, and science communicators, we examine how expectations surrounding AI shape researchers’ everyday practices. Specifically, we attempt to understand how researchers perceive their own communicative agency against the backdrop of a highly charged discursive context. Our work points to a productive field of tension. On the one hand, there are affordances of hyping AI (‘AI sells’). On the other hand, our interlocutors describe structures strongly curtailing their perceived space of agency to critically engage with AI narratives they consider as hyperbolic. Our findings contribute to discussions on the role of TA in navigating the societal implications of AI by shedding light on how researchers perceive their communicative agency in a innovation landscape shaped by both institutional constraints and commercial incentives.