Marketing Digital

December 19, 2025, 5:30 PM EST. At TechCrunch Disrupt, investors from Index, Greylock, and Felicis say the future belongs to AI. They stressed founders must prove resilience, strong domain expertise, and real product-market fit with clear ROI, as demand from enterprise buyers remains high but crowded. Founders should also show how they can pivot as the market shifts, and how they'll differentiate via unique data flywheels that competitors can't easily replicate. As for what's driving early AI wins, speakers pointed to chat apps, coding tools, and AI-assisted customer service; less glamorous sectors still pursue digitization. Looking ahead, experts see opportunities in AI-enabled marketplaces, robotics, and SaaS models, while avoiding mere feature add-ons to foundational models.