The playbook for private equity investments needs fresh eyes. With AI tools becoming more powerful by the month, PE firms can’t afford to stick to old methods of company evaluation. Technology veteran Aaron Moore spends his days helping PE firms spot threats they might miss – and his message is clear: what worked yesterday won’t cut it tomorrow.
Missing the Blind Spots
Aaron recently worked with a PE firm that thought they’d found a safe bet. “They were getting ready to buy a company and they felt like there was no chance that AI could disrupt this industry,” he says. The firm’s internal team and industry experts all agreed – this business was solid. But something didn’t add up. Through careful brainstorming sessions and what-if scenarios, Aaron helped uncover a blind spot. “We were able to come up with a completely different scenario than they’d ever thought of, outside of their industry, where they could be completely disrupted,” he shares. “It was a shock to everybody.”
Threat from Small AI Players
Here’s what keeps Aaron up at night: tiny companies with big AI tools. “There’s going to be a one-person company that completely destroys businesses, that destroys industries,” he warns. “They can have a set of AI agents out there doing all of the jobs that maybe your 50 or 100 staff are doing.” The scary part? These disruptors won’t need the usual stuff – no big offices, no massive teams, no heavy infrastructure. Just smart people with the right AI tools.
Aaron sees too many companies playing AI bingo – trying everything without a real plan. “Everybody is wanting to see value without doing the strategy,” he notes. “Businesses just want to throw things at the technology and hope it works.” His solution? Slow down. Think it through. “You need to take a step back and think about what you are trying to accomplish? What use-cases make sense? What’s the ROI?” he advises. “AI solves big problems today, but there is still a lot of maturity that needs to happen. Understanding what is easy and low cost vs what is hard and expensive is the key to success”
Transforming Operations with AI
When done right, AI can transform operations. Aaron points to a company that handled thousands of daily calls about route planning. They built an AI system to handle both calls and emails, automatically responding to common questions and only passing the tough stuff to humans. The result? “They were able to reduce the manual touch of this customer conversation by 50 to 60% at the beginning,” he says, “and they think it’ll continue even more from there.”
Aaron sees significant changes ahead for businesses across all sectors. “I think there’s an interesting risk there. But there’s all kinds of opportunity to be able to step in and be the disruptor,” he notes. The key question he poses to companies: “Do you want to be the disrupted or do you want to be the disruptor?” For those aiming to succeed in technology leadership, Aaron’s message is clear: maintain openness to new ideas and focus on developing others. “What makes a great CTO is that wide view of the world,” he concludes.
Want to learn more about Aaron Moore’s work in AI strategy? Check out his LinkedIn profile for more insights.
