Insights from Sameer Dholakia at Bessemer Venture Partners

The nascent stages of a new or emergent technology are always a rollercoaster of investment and innovation. This often creates exciting and competitive bouts between businesses over a short time. Newcomers on the scene deliver combo moves and well-established incumbents follow up with counterpunches. 

Winners are difficult to predict before the dust settles but one thing is generally certain: if the technology is powerful enough, the business world often thinks of it in terms of life before and after its arrival.

Generative AI is one such technology that’s newer but is already having a profound effect on business. The viability of its functionality and use cases is creating a sometimes combative, sometimes cooperative relationship between newcomers and incumbents pushing themselves toward greater market influence. It’s also led to a white-hot investment scene, where funding to this point in 2023 has already surpassed the $1.5 billion raised across all of 2020. 

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