Fordel StudiosWhere VCs think AI startups can win, even with OpenAI in the game
What Happened
Vanessa Larco, partner at Premise and former partner at NEA, thinks 2026 will finally be the year of consumer AI. Larco, who’s been investing in consumer and prosumer for years, thinks we’re about to see a shift in how consumers spend time online, with AI powering “concierge-like”
Our Take
'Concierge-like' is code for 'we still don't know what this does.' Consumer AI's been two years of promises — smarter notes, research assistants, coding partners. What's actually winning adoption? Single-purpose tools doing one thing well (voice transcription, image editing). Chat interfaces doing everything poorly aren't the move.
Larco's betting on a shift, but I don't see it in actual usage. The killer app's still missing.
What To Do
If you're building consumer AI, pick one painful workflow and solve it ruthlessly. Stop chasing 'AI for everything.'
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