Investing in AI During the 2024 EBAN Annual Congress

Having AI be at the forefront of technological progress, investing in it has become more precarious than ever before. Within this gold rush of progress the EBAN Annual Congress brought together a panellist session on “Investing in AI” with Yuri Navarro from Kanata Ventures, Dr. Julian Hensolt from Dresslife, Shahab Anbarjafari from PwC Finland, Risto Maasing from PromptAI OÜ and Tallinn University of Technology, and EBAN Board member & HeBAN Co-Founder Panayiotis Ketikidis to discuss the opportunities and pitfalls investing in AI can bring.

• The new investing wild west: The increasing difficulty of investing in AI

With the cost of developing software continuously experiencing a downward trend, the need for software development is being rapidly replaced by AI automation. These ease of use is creating an exceedingly lower barrier of entry allowing anyone to integrate the technology into their startups. This however makes it easier for competing companies (ChatGPT) to replicate applications and make it free for users, rendering your company obsolete. The panellists during this session agreed that defensibility of your product is the most difficult aspect when investing in AI companies. If you are focusing on investing in general application AI software they implore that exiting as soon as possible will net you the best results as that startup could disappear just as easily as it has been created. However if you are looking into more qualitative applications then there are certain things you need to take into consideration.

• Finding your specific use case: What to look for when investing into AI

When searching for investment opportunities in a good AI company the question that should come to mind is how what can be solved today using the technology we have now. By prioritising the problem instead of the technology you target specific key issues which could be solved by using artificial intelligence. This then allows you to focus on procuring unique and quality based datasets which can not be copied easily through LLMs. This creates a defensible product in a market that is saturated with competitors and allows you to target specific customer groups within the industry you are targeting. Before moving on to a more generalised discussion on AI, the panellist advised participants to self educate as much as you can before investing and truly understand what the underlying tech is before deciding to join the project. 

• Current AI Ecosystem: Why is it important to develop in the technology?

The questions posed would now shift to the more general ecosystem AI is currently developing in. In this part of the session the group would advocate for the continuous investment in AI development within the European Union. They compared the technology to water and how those that control the computing centres control the supply of data. Furthermore the drive for policies surrounding data protection and privacy is becoming more apparent. With the rapid evolution of data collection it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with enforcing regulations on this issue. Due to this lag, companies need to have in place a framework of how to deal with data privacy and use ethics. 

With rapid expansion of AI technology, our panellists are cautiously hopeful for the future and how it can shape the investment landscape. With the proper due diligence investors need to start dreaming big and use AI as a leverage to make it happen. 

Interested in learning more about AI and DeepTech? Then come join us at the European Angel Investment Summit in Brussels, Belgium on October 15 – 16. Take part in insightful discussion on the progress of DeepTech innovations and join the startup showcase where the latest technologies are presented to you on the pitching stage! Discover the program and get your tickets here:https://europeanangelsummit.com/