AI in 2026: are we all doomed?
“We’re all doomed.”
That was the half-serious tone running through an LBS venture panel on the future of global innovation. AI is compressing adoption cycles, whole categories are being rebuilt in months rather than years, and capital is moving at a speed that makes even experienced investors uneasy. If you listened selectively, it sounded like structural collapse. If you listened properly, it sounded like transition.
Three takeaways stood out.
First, the barrier to start has collapsed - the barrier to win has not. With AI tools, small teams can ship products at a pace that would have required significant capital just a few years ago. The cost of experimentation is lower than ever. But that does not make durable businesses easier to build. The panel repeatedly returned to the idea that early revenue milestones are now commonplace; what matters is the ability to compound from “2 to 20” at abnormal speed. Velocity is no longer an advantage - it is the entry ticket. Distribution, retention and execution under pressure are what separate noise from signal.
Second, moats are not disappearing, they are moving. There was debate around whether AI agents reduce switching costs and threaten traditional “systems of record.” While workflows may be abstracted more easily, enterprise defensibility is rarely just technical. Governance, regulation, trust and data control remain powerful anchors. The more credible thesis is that defensibility is relocating upward in the stack - from interface and features to orchestration, compliance and ownership of the customer relationship. For investors, that shifts underwriting focus away from novelty and toward structural positioning.
Third, Europe’s constraint is less about talent and more about risk appetite and scale capital. The panel was blunt: US venture remains faster and more concentrated in its willingness to write large cheques. Europe, by contrast, can be committee-heavy and quicker to sell. Yet there is a countercurrent - geopolitical fragmentation is creating distribution advantages for European software in certain enterprise contexts. Structural capital disadvantage coexists with tactical demand tailwinds.
The mood was restless but not despairing. Yes, industries will be disrupted more quickly. Yes, valuations are being stress-tested. But we are also living through a period where tools are democratised and the upside from bold execution is extraordinary.
Doomed? Hardly.
Rebecca Lewis is Partner & Co-CEO at Arisaig Partners. The views expressed are personal.