David Haber, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), evaluates whether initial AI feature differentiation provides long-term business defensibility.
Insight
Haber: AI hurts hourly billers but multiplies contingency legal revenue
“If you're a corporate attorney, you know, and your, you know you know, junior attorney is 50 times more productive, you've just eroded some of the revenue that you can actually charge to your end client. Again, in this case, if you can make your attorneys, you…”
Insight
Haber: AI reinforces contingency legal models rather than eroding billable hours
“And so again, while AI is helping automate a lot of the drafting and reasoning work that they do, ultimately it's really about enabling them to take on more clients and make more money. So it doesn't erode, you know, the billable hour. It really reinforces the…”
Insight
Haber: AI capabilities offer product differentiation, not long-term defensibility
“But the source, the AI-ness of that capability, in my opinion, is not a source of defensibility. It, it's largely differentiation. The defensibility of a software product resides, in my opinion, you know, from owning the end-to-end workflow, you know, from the…”
Insight
Haber: Contingency law firms have an unlimited appetite for AI adoption
“In lots of areas of legal if you make your employee 50 times more efficient, you're eroding your billable hour. In their business, they operate on a contingency basis. Meaning, You know, they only get paid if they make, if they win. So there's no sort of limit…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Haber: Every healthcare company will eventually become a fintech company
“Certainly one of our core theses at ASICS and Z has been that every company is going to become a fintech company. And Julie and I have been riffing that, you know, Either every healthcare company is already a fintech company or is certainly going to become a f…”
Assertion Supported
Haber: Block executed a 40% workforce reduction driven by AI
“And recently Block executed a roughly 40% reduction in force. And they've been pretty candid about AI being a critical component of that decision.”