Most firms approach AI in their portfolio companies as a tooling problem: pick the right software, get the licenses in place, and assume value follows.
It doesn’t work that way.
AI is a coordination problem across three things that rarely move together: operators, workflows, and incentives. You can put the best tools in the building and still see zero impact, because value isn’t created at the tool level. It’s created at the execution layer — where decisions get made, processes get followed, and teams operate day to day.
A strategy that stops at which tool to buy is just theory. The detail that matters is how the work actually changes — who does what differently on Monday morning, and why it’s worth their time. That’s the part most initiatives skip, and it’s the reason most of them stall.