AI Investing in 2026

Astasia Myers, General Partner at Felicis, breaks down how venture capital is betting on AI and why over 80% of their recent investments are in this space. But this isn’t just another “AI is the future” conversation. We dig into the real ROI happening right now in healthcare voice agents, why MIT says 95% of GenAI projects fail to reach production, and what needs to happen for that number to flip. If you’re building, investing, or just trying to understand where enterprise AI is actually working (not just hyped), this episode cuts through the noise. What You'll Learn The labor replacement opportunity: Why outcome-based AI solutions are targeting the $35 trillion labor market instead of just software budgets and how that changes everything for startups and investors. Voice AI’s healthcare breakthrough: How voice agents are finally solving the operational bottlenecks in patient scheduling and communication, driving 24/7 availability with better NPS than human operators. Why 95% of GenAI projects still fail: The technical and infrastructure gaps that prevent most AI initiatives from making it to production and what’s needed to fix that in 2026. The new technical risk era: After years of focusing purely on market risk, VCs are back to evaluating deep technical challenges in agentic systems, browser automation, and continuous learning loops. The exceptionalism filter: How early-stage investors are separating signal from noise when everyone can spin up an AI startup and why founder insights and lived experience matter more than ever. Timestamped Highlights 00:31 – What Felicis invests in and the types of AI companies dominating their portfolio right now 02:58 – Why healthcare tech is finally ready for its AI moment after years of long sales cycles and unclear ROI 08:15 – How outcome-based pricing is changing the VC evaluation playbook and unlocking 10x larger TAMs 13:26 – The mythical one-person billion-dollar company: Is it real, and how would investors even spot it? 17:18 – Voice AI as the gateway for enterprise adoption and why this modality is different from Siri and Alexa 20:08 – Democratizing AI: What ChatGPT did for consumers and what needs to happen for enterprise builders One Thing Worth Remembering “These technologies can price towards the labor replacement markets, which is about 10x the size of the software market itself. The ROI right now is so tangible that it is a time to invest.” Subscribe and Stay in the Loop If this episode gave you a new angle on where AI is actually delivering value, share it with a founder or investor who needs to hear it. Subscribe so you don’t miss the next conversation, and drop a comment if there’s a topic or guest you want us to tackle next.