Gilion Executive Questions Current AI Adoption
Henrik Landgren states that venture capital is 50% science and 50% art and relies heavily on founders’ charisma. Landgren, who served as VP of analytics at Spotify, says investors receive vast collections of data that are cherry-picked and packaged by founders. He notes that pitch decks and company websites can be created in a single afternoon while data slicing is aided by powerful AI models.
According to Crunchbase News, Landgren argues the industry is using AI the wrong way. At Spotify he observed software that stored every user click, moving decisions beyond Excel spreadsheets. He says most investment teams treat an AI stack as a checkbox and use LLMs only to shorten report writing or pitch summaries.
Data Sources Must Precede AI Tools
Landgren states that an LLM is only as good as the data fed into it. He lists payment records, marketing performance, accounting systems and board reports as sources that reflect actual company operations. Investors should connect directly to these systems instead of waiting for founders to package information.
The article explains that this approach lets analysts begin diligence at 70% completion, reserving human judgment for team assessment and reading the room. Landgren compares the current process to buying a house surveyed by the homeowner rather than an independent party.
Competitive and Market Implications
According to Crunchbase News, better data access lets investors reach conviction faster in attractive deals. Landgren notes that capital-efficient, high-retention businesses are often overlooked because their supporting data is not accessed quickly enough. He adds that in five years the companies worth funding will include AI-powered hardware and deep tech whose performance cannot be measured by traditional income models.
Landgren concludes that the industry must stop asking how AI can speed up existing processes and instead determine what a better process looks like.
