AI Strategy

At Ionic Partners, we have a strong point of view on the impact of AI on enterprise software: All enterprise software companies will fall into 2 categories – AI Enhanced or AI Disrupted

Our approach focuses on building smarter AI Enhanced platforms that drive value for our businesses & their customers (by leveraging our deep results-based expertise with AI technologies.)

AI Enhanced
  • Core value proposition & usage of the platform remains the same despite the introduction of AI.
  • Foundational customer relationships and vertical operating systems will become far more valuable.
  • Increased efficiency & flexibility – AI will automate away human data input, transformation & analysis and will adapt on the fly to new data formats vs coding new ELT pipelines.
  • Increased depth and quality of insights – As AI rapidly evolves, AI native workflows will drive more accurate, efficient, and insightful outcomes for software companies and their customers. The underlying dataset from vertical systems of record will become increasingly important to empower AI engines in generating and synthesizing knowledge that far surpasses the limitations of query-based searches.
  • Key question “Does AI replace part of what a human does?”
AI Disrupted
  • Core value proposition & usage of platform is replaced by AI tools & workflows. AI will solve the user problem in a new way that renders the legacy software largely irrelevant.
  • New entrants focused on AI replace established players in the market, primarily because AI offers a significantly improved value proposition compared to traditional algorithms and user experiences.
  • Key question “Does AI do a better job than a human using the software?”

Navigating AI Transformation

We believe that SaaS companies will be either AI-enabled or AI-disrupted. SaaS companies that serve as core operating systems to customers have the opportunity to empower their value proposition via AI rather than be disrupted.

Empowering Core
Systems

We are in a unique moment in time where core systems, with proprietary data sets, can leverage AI-native workflows to enhance, deliver, and create real insight and value for their customers.

Redefining Growth
With AI

We partner with businesses ready to accelerate their next chapter of growth by integrating AI into their platforms, unlocking new opportunities and enhancing their software solutions.

The stability of enterprise software investments in undergoing a dramatic shift. Investors must critically assess whether a company is AI Enhanced or AI Disrupted.