The six questions
Who signed the last three AI purchases and when the CFO saw them. Which budget line AI sits in. Which roles were not hired. The CFO's payback date, not the CEO's. The agent-access inventory and its budget. The named AI owner in each portfolio company.
Why they predict something
Named ownership is associated with measurable value at four to one: investors see nothing measurable in 9 percent of companies where the CEO owns AI and 41 percent where nobody does. A quarter of companies cannot say which budget line AI sits in. The CEO's payback date is 28 points more optimistic than the CFO's. Two thirds of security leaders say agent access is their top problem and a third have a budget for it.
The headcount claim
A third of the CEO seat says AI money would otherwise have been headcount; a fifth of the finance seat agrees. The operating-model saving in the deck is a CEO claim the CFO discounts by almost half. Ask for roles not hired, not roles cut.
Late-stage deals
For a minority position in an AI vendor, invert the questions: which of the three doorways does it sell through, is its revenue usage or outcome, and does its customer's CFO agree with its customer's CEO. Outcome pricing sold to the CTO, the most common combination among new companies, is a promise made to the seat that does not measure it.
What changes in October
The private equity briefings and the investor drinks carry the first PE instrument. Until then the PE seat in the Index is four respondents, and the edition says so.
Who should read it
Who should read it: Private equity investors, operating partners, and portfolio-operations teams building an AI section into diligence and value-creation plans.
Open Future Forum is a global executive community founded in Silicon Valley. Its network reaches tens of thousands of executives and investors worldwide. It runs a year-round calendar of events for senior executives and investors, including CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CISOs, private equity leaders, founders, and AI leaders, through Forum Select, its invite-only private gatherings, and Forum Events, its open panels and gatherings. Beyond events, Open Future Forum convenes peer groups and executive boards and publishes original research built on first-party survey and qualitative data from its executive network. The research program draws directly from those rooms.
Read the What the September data means for private equity →
Open Future Forum is a global executive community founded in Silicon Valley, whose network reaches tens of thousands of executives and investors worldwide. Its research program, including the Executive AI Leverage Report and the role editions of the Enterprise AI Buying and Budget Index, is built on first-party survey data from executives attending Open Future Forum events.