Vista's Smith says AI is driving portfolio company production
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Vista Equity's Robert Smith at Axios BFD Photo courtesy: Sam Popp on behalf of Axios
Forms of generative AI are playing a role in all of Vista Equity Partners' portfolio companies, founder Robert Smith said at Axios BFD, and are driving innovation across product lines.
Why it matters: Smith made the point that AI innovation is not leading to headcount reductions inside his firm or within Vista's portfolio company universe.
Zoom in: "One hundred percent of our companies are now using some form of code assist, or generative AI that enables code," Smith said in New York on Tuesday.
- "Have we decreased the amount of programmers? Not yet. Why? We're using that productivity to help develop a product."
- Austin-based Vista has more than 85 portfolio companies, in the enterprise software, data, and tech industries.
Between the lines: Smith went on to describe how Vista has enabled AI to analyze contracts signed by the firm's portfolio companies.
- "Massive implications. We just finished our first beta test a month ago and I'm really excited about it," Smith said. "Does that change the number of jobs? Not today."
Catch up quick: Smith left Goldman Sachs and founded Vista in San Francisco in 2000. The firm focused on the technology space, and eventually built a business with more than $100 billion of assets under management.
Smith was asked on Tuesday about how his limited partner investors felt when Vista raised a more than $20 billion fund earlier this year, by far the firm's largest. LPs often scoff at larger funds on the premise that it produces lower returns.
- "The good news is if you actually look at our progression, we started to return capital with bigger and bigger funds," Smith said.
Two fun things: Smith was asked if he ever considered running for office.
- "I have never stated any interest in that," he said.
- When asked if it was true that he was once interested in bidding for the Denver Broncos, Smith said he also held no interest in that, and confessed to watching exactly one half of a football game per year (at the Super Bowl).
