Upfront Summit 2023: AI takes the stage

A fanfare, a red carpet, and a DJ coding his beats are all things you can get before coffee (and a business card) at the Upfront Summit, one of the venture’s most anticipated conferences. But even a fanfare couldn’t distract from the real star of the show: the AI.

Upfront Summit founder Mark Suster and partners Kerry Bennett and Kobie Fuller even did an AI-centric skit. Take-out? AI is a tempting sector to invest in, but it is still too early to blindly trust.

This is not new; fashionable technologies often arouse excessive interest. But the atmosphere is different than it was in 2021 when investors were throwing billions of dollars at grocery delivery companies in 15 minutes and on the web3. Venture dry powder is locked in, deals are slower and some investors are still licking their wounds from the downturn so far.

The AI ​​feels it. According to a TechCrunch analysis of PitchBook data, “generative AI companies aren’t even going to set a local quarterly maximum for fundraising in Q1 2023.” Understanding how recently humbled check writers think about AI will help tech better understand how to execute lunar visions.