Renowned solo venture capitalist Elad Gil has said that the artificial intelligence (AI) industry continues to evolve rapidly, with some sectors now showing clear dominant players while others remain highly uncertain and open for innovation.

Gil made the remarks during a session at TechCrunch Disrupt, reflecting on his extensive involvement in many of the most influential tech startups of the past decade.

According to him, the current AI wave has been among the most unpredictable technological booms to date. Gil noted that when he began investing in generative AI in 2021, the field did not command as much attention as it does now. However, a striking leap in capability from GPT-2, released in 2019, to GPT-3 in 2021 convinced him that the technology was on the verge of reshaping the future.

“The step between GPT-2 and GPT-3 was so large that if you projected the growth curve forward, it became clear this was going to be incredibly important,” he explained. This insight led Gil to invest heavily in both foundational AI model developers such as OpenAI and Mistral, and application-focused firms including Perplexity, Harvey, Character.ai, Decagon, and Abridge.

Despite the rapid advancement of AI models throughout 2024 and 2025, Gil maintains that certain markets have now reached a point where winners are emerging. Foundational model development is one of these areas, with a short list of companies he believes are poised to lead the sector. He identified Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Meta, and Mistral as front-runners, even as various nations continue efforts to produce sovereign models through local developers.

Gil also highlighted AI-assisted software development as a space where strong leaders have taken hold. Established AI labs have entered the field, while startups such as Anysphere’s Cursor and Cognition’s Devin are setting high competitive standards. Additional players like Magic and Poolside continue to gain momentum, though the market’s leaders appear increasingly difficult to displace.

He further pointed to medical transcription as another maturing segment, naming Abridge and Ambience among the most promising companies. In customer support automation, he noted that Decagon — one of his portfolio companies — has achieved strong footing. He also referenced Sierra, founded by OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor, as well as AI integrations now being added by established CRM firms like Salesforce and HubSpot.

However, not all AI markets are close to being settled. Gil believes financial services tooling, accounting technology, and AI security remain wide-open competitive fields, even though they are expected to become major beneficiaries of AI-driven transformation.

He also cautioned investors and founders against assuming that rapid early growth signals long-term success. The accelerated interest of large corporations in AI solutions means many new startups can secure enterprise customers quickly — but may struggle later to maintain that momentum.

“There’s false signal, and then there’s stuff that is just working,” Gil noted, citing the legal AI platform Harvey as a company demonstrating sustained traction. Harvey saw its valuation surge from $3 billion to $8 billion within months after closing multiple funding rounds in 2025.

Gil’s outlook underscores a rapidly evolving environment: some AI arenas are consolidating, while many others remain wide open — promising significant opportunity for those who can innovate ahead of the market curve.

Source: Techcrunch