There’s arguably no technology more hyped than AI right now. And where there are hype cycles, there’s also plenty of opinions, distractions, and misinformation. That doesn’t mean it’s not a great time to be investing in AI (we think it is) or that AI isn’t a fundamental shift that will transform our lives (again, we think it will)—but it does mean there’s a lot of noise in the space.
Our founders, partners, and collaborators are cutting through that noise. From Union Square Ventures co-founder Brad Burnham’s take that AI agents will kill traditional advertising, to M13 co-founder Carter Reum’s belief that investing in AI technology alone doesn’t work, our community’s perspectives challenge hype cycle thinking and highlight how AI could reshape the ways we work, connect, and build.
1. Ad space is going through a sea change.
“One of the biggest things agents are going to do is filter the world for you…one of the first things that's going to go is advertising.” — Union Square Ventures co-founder Brad Burnham
Brad believes the future of AI agents isn’t agents acting for you, but agents curating what you consume. Users generally don’t want advertising in their feed. If they’re in control of that feed via an agent who searches for things of interest to them, they’re going to eliminate advertising.
We dive deep on how AI is transforming everything from SEO and SEM to influencer marketing and connected TV in our latest report on how AI is changing marketing in 2025.
More from Brad: AI, Crypto, and Riding Hype Cycle Waves with Brad and Latif
2. New York could be the new Silicon Valley for AI.
“I fundamentally believe that New York’s Empire AI project will spur the kind of broader economic and tech growth that we saw centered around Stanford and Silicon Valley for 20 years—becoming a new center of gravity for the best faculty, post-docs, students, employers, and startups.” —Tech:NYC President & CEO Julie Samuels
A lot of people think the ultimate AI hub is San Francisco—but we’re seeing great founders in New York building with AI.
Our portfolio companies are building AI-powered futures in finance (Rho), local government (Polimorphic), public safety (Prepared), business intelligence (Zenlytic) and more, all operating in the Empire State.
More from Julie: Forging Private-Public Relationships Across the State, Country, and Universe
3. AI is no longer optional for founders.
“In 2024, if you don’t have AI in your pitch deck, I want to know why.” —M13 partner Anna Barber
AI is all about efficiency gains: it can make things faster, cheaper, and better. It’s not just a trend, but a paradigm shift that is improving efficiency. So if you’re a founder that isn’t using AI, Anna wants to know why.
4. At the same time…don’t just tack on “.ai” after your name and call yourself an AI company.
“A lot of companies get a .ai domain and assume they’re an AI company.” —M13 Partner Rob Smith
Many AI companies aren’t “really” AI companies; they’re using AI from other firms or planning to implement AI in the future. AI has become a marketing tool for founders, and we don’t knock them for that! But investors need to dig deeper. There’s a big difference between a company that uses AI tools to automate internal processes versus an AI-first company building a product around artificial intelligence.
More from Rob: AI Company Misconceptions and His Journey from Startup Fixer to Venture Capitalist
5. AI creativity doesn’t move us; human creativity does.
“Story makes creativity effective, and effective creativity is creativity that moves us. I don’t think what comes out of models necessarily moves us.” —Adobe Chief Strategy Officer Scott Belsky
When you look at a piece of fine art in a gallery, you're not paying for the paint or the canvas. You're paying for the story behind it.
Scott believes that in the era of generative AI, consumers will crave scarcity, story, and process more than ever. The story behind an art piece, film, or even a marketing campaign will become more important as AI matures.
More from Scott: AI Is Coming for Our Work. That’s a Good Thing.
6. It’s not about AI. It’s about the implications of AI.
“Just investing in AI doesn’t work.” —M13 co-founder & partner Carter Reum
We believe AI is a technical revolution, like the internet and mobile phones. Right now everyone’s talking about the technology itself, but that could be just the first ripple.
Think about companies like Airbnb, Uber, and Lyft: they rose to prominence because the iPhone first made them possible. At M13, we’re excited about the second, third, and fourth ripples of AI: what this technology will make possible in the future of work, commerce, health, and money.
More from Carter: How to Spot the Tech Unicorn to Invest In
7. The AI agent technology of tomorrow is about being able to put actions together without humans in the loop.
“It's about ultimately giving AI outcomes. Today you can tell an agent, ‘order me a pizza,’ and a pizza arrives. But at the next level, you tell an agent, ‘I’m hungry,’ and it knows from your overall history that you like pizza, and so it orders you one.” —Maven AGI co-founder and CTO Sami Shalabi
At M13 portfolio company Maven AGI, Sami, Jonathan, and team are creating an AGI platform for enterprises. In the future, a marketing tech company could tell an AI agent, “I want 100 leads.” The potential value is to fundamentally 100x human productivity.
More from Sami: The Rise of AI Agents
8. The Googles and Amazons of tomorrow are being built right now.
“The greatest businesses in history were built during tough economic periods." —M13 partner Karl Alomar
When funding is scarce, valuations are more reasonable, and founders build with efficiency in mind. This combination creates fertile ground for long-term growth.
Karl's not afraid of hype—he believes investors just need to be careful of excitement without due diligence. It takes good strategic thinking and a calm, stable team to navigate through false flags and identify the “needles in the hype haystack” that actually have meaningful potential.
Meet Karl: On Scaling Startups, Founder Red Flags, and Why He’s Not Afraid of Hype
9. Startups have an edge in AI that incumbents don’t.
“This shift in technology positions startups at the application layer to compete with incumbents.” —M13 investor Morgan Blumberg
The AI tech stack includes infrastructure, orchestration, and application layers. Startups at the application layer have an edge that incumbents don’t: to build from the ground up on generative AI.
That flexibility can result in fast adoption in the most difficult times. For example, M13 portfolio company Polimorphic saw new use cases when Florida and North Carolina cities and counties used its AI-enabled search to make sure residents got up to date information and disaster recovery packages.
More from Morgan: AI Fundamentals: What AI Really Does and Where We’re Looking to Invest
10. We shouldn’t take our human uniqueness for granted.
“Technology isn’t what’s making people better off. It’s actually the impact of the decisions we make and how we use our tools. When we think about future uncertainties and present-day decisions that we have control over, that’s our choice. It’s up to us to make decisions that result in shared prosperity and tools that enable that.” —M13 partner Christine Choi
At a recent A. Team panel on tackling bias in AI development, M13 partner Christine Choi started the conversation by asking each panelist to share something that AI doesn’t know about them. There’s so much to adopt and iterate on with this technology—but it’s important not to take our human uniqueness for granted.
There’s arguably no technology more hyped than AI right now. And where there are hype cycles, there’s also plenty of opinions, distractions, and misinformation. That doesn’t mean it’s not a great time to be investing in AI (we think it is) or that AI isn’t a fundamental shift that will transform our lives (again, we think it will)—but it does mean there’s a lot of noise in the space.
Our founders, partners, and collaborators are cutting through that noise. From Union Square Ventures co-founder Brad Burnham’s take that AI agents will kill traditional advertising, to M13 co-founder Carter Reum’s belief that investing in AI technology alone doesn’t work, our community’s perspectives challenge hype cycle thinking and highlight how AI could reshape the ways we work, connect, and build.
1. Ad space is going through a sea change.
“One of the biggest things agents are going to do is filter the world for you…one of the first things that's going to go is advertising.” — Union Square Ventures co-founder Brad Burnham
Brad believes the future of AI agents isn’t agents acting for you, but agents curating what you consume. Users generally don’t want advertising in their feed. If they’re in control of that feed via an agent who searches for things of interest to them, they’re going to eliminate advertising.
We dive deep on how AI is transforming everything from SEO and SEM to influencer marketing and connected TV in our latest report on how AI is changing marketing in 2025.
More from Brad: AI, Crypto, and Riding Hype Cycle Waves with Brad and Latif
2. New York could be the new Silicon Valley for AI.
“I fundamentally believe that New York’s Empire AI project will spur the kind of broader economic and tech growth that we saw centered around Stanford and Silicon Valley for 20 years—becoming a new center of gravity for the best faculty, post-docs, students, employers, and startups.” —Tech:NYC President & CEO Julie Samuels
A lot of people think the ultimate AI hub is San Francisco—but we’re seeing great founders in New York building with AI.
Our portfolio companies are building AI-powered futures in finance (Rho), local government (Polimorphic), public safety (Prepared), business intelligence (Zenlytic) and more, all operating in the Empire State.
More from Julie: Forging Private-Public Relationships Across the State, Country, and Universe
3. AI is no longer optional for founders.
“In 2024, if you don’t have AI in your pitch deck, I want to know why.” —M13 partner Anna Barber
AI is all about efficiency gains: it can make things faster, cheaper, and better. It’s not just a trend, but a paradigm shift that is improving efficiency. So if you’re a founder that isn’t using AI, Anna wants to know why.
4. At the same time…don’t just tack on “.ai” after your name and call yourself an AI company.
“A lot of companies get a .ai domain and assume they’re an AI company.” —M13 Partner Rob Smith
Many AI companies aren’t “really” AI companies; they’re using AI from other firms or planning to implement AI in the future. AI has become a marketing tool for founders, and we don’t knock them for that! But investors need to dig deeper. There’s a big difference between a company that uses AI tools to automate internal processes versus an AI-first company building a product around artificial intelligence.
More from Rob: AI Company Misconceptions and His Journey from Startup Fixer to Venture Capitalist
5. AI creativity doesn’t move us; human creativity does.
“Story makes creativity effective, and effective creativity is creativity that moves us. I don’t think what comes out of models necessarily moves us.” —Adobe Chief Strategy Officer Scott Belsky
When you look at a piece of fine art in a gallery, you're not paying for the paint or the canvas. You're paying for the story behind it.
Scott believes that in the era of generative AI, consumers will crave scarcity, story, and process more than ever. The story behind an art piece, film, or even a marketing campaign will become more important as AI matures.
More from Scott: AI Is Coming for Our Work. That’s a Good Thing.
6. It’s not about AI. It’s about the implications of AI.
“Just investing in AI doesn’t work.” —M13 co-founder & partner Carter Reum
We believe AI is a technical revolution, like the internet and mobile phones. Right now everyone’s talking about the technology itself, but that could be just the first ripple.
Think about companies like Airbnb, Uber, and Lyft: they rose to prominence because the iPhone first made them possible. At M13, we’re excited about the second, third, and fourth ripples of AI: what this technology will make possible in the future of work, commerce, health, and money.
More from Carter: How to Spot the Tech Unicorn to Invest In
7. The AI agent technology of tomorrow is about being able to put actions together without humans in the loop.
“It's about ultimately giving AI outcomes. Today you can tell an agent, ‘order me a pizza,’ and a pizza arrives. But at the next level, you tell an agent, ‘I’m hungry,’ and it knows from your overall history that you like pizza, and so it orders you one.” —Maven AGI co-founder and CTO Sami Shalabi
At M13 portfolio company Maven AGI, Sami, Jonathan, and team are creating an AGI platform for enterprises. In the future, a marketing tech company could tell an AI agent, “I want 100 leads.” The potential value is to fundamentally 100x human productivity.
More from Sami: The Rise of AI Agents
8. The Googles and Amazons of tomorrow are being built right now.
“The greatest businesses in history were built during tough economic periods." —M13 partner Karl Alomar
When funding is scarce, valuations are more reasonable, and founders build with efficiency in mind. This combination creates fertile ground for long-term growth.
Karl's not afraid of hype—he believes investors just need to be careful of excitement without due diligence. It takes good strategic thinking and a calm, stable team to navigate through false flags and identify the “needles in the hype haystack” that actually have meaningful potential.
Meet Karl: On Scaling Startups, Founder Red Flags, and Why He’s Not Afraid of Hype
9. Startups have an edge in AI that incumbents don’t.
“This shift in technology positions startups at the application layer to compete with incumbents.” —M13 investor Morgan Blumberg
The AI tech stack includes infrastructure, orchestration, and application layers. Startups at the application layer have an edge that incumbents don’t: to build from the ground up on generative AI.
That flexibility can result in fast adoption in the most difficult times. For example, M13 portfolio company Polimorphic saw new use cases when Florida and North Carolina cities and counties used its AI-enabled search to make sure residents got up to date information and disaster recovery packages.
More from Morgan: AI Fundamentals: What AI Really Does and Where We’re Looking to Invest
10. We shouldn’t take our human uniqueness for granted.
“Technology isn’t what’s making people better off. It’s actually the impact of the decisions we make and how we use our tools. When we think about future uncertainties and present-day decisions that we have control over, that’s our choice. It’s up to us to make decisions that result in shared prosperity and tools that enable that.” —M13 partner Christine Choi
At a recent A. Team panel on tackling bias in AI development, M13 partner Christine Choi started the conversation by asking each panelist to share something that AI doesn’t know about them. There’s so much to adopt and iterate on with this technology—but it’s important not to take our human uniqueness for granted.
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What We Talk About When We Talk About AI
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