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Forerunner Ventures managing partner Kirsten Green has made a career\u2014and raised billions of dollars\u2014by investing early in consumer startups like health device maker Oura and grooming product retailer Dollar Shave Club. Now, Green says the growing number of consumer-based options has created a massive opportunity for AI companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve reached peak access\u2026people are feeling overwhelmed, if not burdened, by the level of information and hyperconnectivity they have,\u201d Green said on stage at Fortune<\/em>\u2019s Brainstorm Tech conference in Park City, Utah on Tuesday. \u201cEnter gen AI.\u201d<\/p>\n In a survey of consumers, Forerunner Ventures found a vast majority (82%) believes generative AI will \u201cmake life easier.\u201d Big opportunities for gen AI builders, therefore, lie in creating businesses based on consumer-focused sectors including ecommerce, fintech, health, services, social, and sustainability, the firm said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Venture capitalists, in general, seem to agree that AI has a big future as AI startups nab eye-popping valuations. For example, as Green spoke at the conference, the Financial Times<\/em><\/a> reported that Stanford University computer scientist Fei-Fei Li\u2019s four-month-old AI company World Labs was valued at $1 billion by investors like Andreessen Horowitz after raising $100 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n That said, AI companies\u2019 have many challenges. Their success relies on consumers believing, and relying on, the information the technology delivers. This means that founders need to build relationships with customers that go far deeper than the ones they have with, say, razor or cosmetics companies, and create a level of trust.<\/p>\n Green, who has also invested in luggage retailer Away, eyewear retailer Warby Parker<\/a>, and cosmetics retailer Glossier, acknowledges this, and adds to it. She says AI founders have greater challenges than others considering all the negative news headlines about tech failures. She suggests founders\u2019 overcome the bad PR by \u201cbeing realistic\u201d and \u201csatisfying a need,\u201d while acknowledging the risk of \u201cdisappointing\u201d users.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, crazier things have happened in tech than outsourcing email writing and calculus homework to AI chatbots.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRemember how foreign or even inconceivable it felt to get in a stranger\u2019s car or to stay in someone\u2019s house?\u201d asks Green. \u201cWe\u2019ve clearly moved beyond those fears.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n CEO Daily provides key context for the news leaders need to know from across the world of business. Every weekday morning, more than 125,000 readers trust CEO Daily for insights about\u2013and from inside\u2013the C-suite. Subscribe Now<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRecommended Newsletter:<\/strong><\/p>\n