“Founders Should Learn Every Possible AI Tool Quickly,” Says AngelList CEO Avlok Kohli

AI is no longer just for tech giants; it’s the game-changer every business needs to thrive on. Once reserved for the cutting edge, AI has now become the backbone of modern software development. From automating mundane tasks to predicting customer behavior and personalizing user experiences, AI is unlocking new levels of efficiency and intelligence. If new-age founders are not leveraging AI to elevate their business, then they are missing out.

Today, the act of creating software isn’t just about building something that functions; it’s about designing systems that think, learn, and adapt. As Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, put it, “AI is the most profound thing we’re working on as humanity. It’s more profound than fire or electricity.” That sense of urgency and inevitability is visible across every layer of the tech ecosystem. Everyday products like Google Search or Gmail, enterprise giants like Salesforce, and even small independent apps all rely on AI to create smarter, faster, more human-like experiences.

This cultural shift has completely transformed how startups are built. As AngelList  CEO Avlok Kohli explained on a podcast with TechCrunch, “The enthusiasm for AI carries over into everything, which effectively impacts all startups.” AI is no longer confined to niche sectors or a handful of industry leaders. From fintech and biotech to logistics and consumer apps, startups everywhere are now, at their core, AI companies. What was once a specialised discipline is now a fundamental ingredient woven not just into products, but into hiring, fundraising, growth strategies, and company cultures.

Artificial intelligence is no longer a feature; it’s the foundation of every new company being built today. Kohli emphasised that companies launching now are AI companies by default. Whether they realise it or not, they are using AI models to make their products smarter, faster, and more competitive.

He also pointed out that existing companies must urgently adapt. If they aren’t actively integrating AI into their products, operations, and decision-making processes, they risk becoming obsolete

In fact, he has gone so far as to say that the scale of the AI shift is being massively underestimated. In his view, AI could be the biggest tech cycle in history, surpassing even the internet and mobile revolutions. This isn’t just speculation; it’s showing up in the numbers. About 40% of the startups listed on AngelList were AI-driven, a staggering jump from just a few years earlier. Founders aren’t simply “adding AI” to their products; they are building companies from the ground up with AI as the operating core.

Kohli strongly advises new startup founders to rapidly familiarise themselves with all available AI tools to navigate the ongoing AI revolution. He emphasises the necessity of continuous learning due to the weekly advancements and emerging capabilities of these tools.

AngelList itself is a reflection of this broader trend. What started as a marketplace to connect startups with investors has evolved into a sophisticated infrastructure platform designed to support the next generation of AI-driven companies. As Kohli explained, “We realised early that startups were moving faster, and to keep up, our systems needed to be able to reason, predict, and adapt just like the founders we support.”

AngelList has integrated large language models (LLMs) into its backend systems, automating fund management, streamlining compliance, and reducing administrative burdens for startup founders and investors alike. Tools like AngelList’s Equity Assistant use AI to help founders manage cap tables and option grants through a simple, conversational interface, replacing what once required complicated spreadsheets and legal back-and-forth. The goal is clear: remove friction so startups can focus entirely on building, not on back-office headaches.

AngelList’s newest AI innovation, Finn, takes this a step further. Finn is a reasoning engine for private market data, giving general partners (GPs) and limited partners (LPs) the ability to ask complex questions about valuations, investment trends, secondary markets, and more, all powered by anonymised AngelList data and partner datasets. In a space historically dominated by slow-moving, opaque processes, Finn brings transparency and speed, a critical advantage for AI startups looking to scale quickly.

But perhaps what’s most important about AngelList’s evolution is not just that it uses AI internally but how it empowers startups to thrive in an AI-first world. By providing the capital, infrastructure, tools, and data startups need and by doing so with AI-enhanced speed and intelligence, AngelList isn’t just adapting to the AI future. It’s actively building it.

AngelList has facilitated the launch of AI-focused funds to support emerging startups like Agent Fund, which is a semi-autonomous venture capital fund investing in AI autonomous agent startups, launched on AngelList and led by Yohei Nakajima.

While AngelList doesn’t publicly disclose a comprehensive list of all AI companies it has funded, several notable startups have received backing either directly through AngelList or from its founder Naval Ravikant himself and those companies are Replit, Perplexity AI and Anthropic.According to Magical founder Harpaul Sambhi, whose company created an AI agent for automating data entry, writing, and messaging, said “Their service is top notch, and their software continues to release features weekly where you can see their vision become a reality.”