Having been subject to a lot of buzzword-blarers over the last term I'd say that you just tell everybody that you are working the foundations of what all the ot

Having been subject to a lot of buzzword-blarers over the last term I'd say that you just tell everybody that you are working the foundations of what all the other people are doing if they ask, what makes you special. If you can back it up, why not ride the wave. I would refrain from putting the sticker on everything though. I als made a turnaround and now spin everything I do which takes time (basically automating my research and data-vis) as building blocks for (gradschool) ML-based research.