AI Returns Come From Coherence Not Sophistication: What the Best Portfolio Companies Have in Common

If you're evaluating a portfolio company's AI readiness, don't start with their tech stack. Start with a simple test: ask five executives what AI is doing for the business. If you get five different answers, you're looking at a company that's spending on AI but hasn't aligned on it. That gap is where value destruction hides.

The companies generating real returns from AI aren't the ones with the most sophisticated models. They're the ones where the investment thesis, operational execution, and institutional understanding of AI are coherent from the boardroom to the front line.