This article is Part Four of our Mid-Year Report on an eventful 2023 in tech, startups and venture capital. In Part One we took a look at data and trends over the last six months. Part Two shared survey results from our readers about the rest of the year. And Part Three revealed our IPO predictions for 2023.
Artificial intelligence hasn’t just dominated the tech world through the first half of this year — its use and applications have dominated the buzz in nearly every aspect of our lives from employment to dating.
That certainly has been true in the venture capital and investing world as well, as one huge funding round has been followed by even bigger ones, and seemingly every startup has scrambled to call themselves “AI-enhanced” or “AI-powered.”
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New market, same old question
Alex Mason, partner at growth equity firm FTV Capital, said while his firm continues to look at different layers of the AI stack, the one constant question is how companies will actually use this technology.
“I think you always need to be asking how companies incorporate AI into their business,” said Mason, whose firm has invested in startups including U.K.-based CloudFactory, which does data labeling for AI.
“I think you have to ask what AI means to the customer,” he added. “There are different stages of adoption.”
However, most agree there will be some level of adoption of AI by nearly every company in almost any sector at some point in the future.