The Consulting Trap: Why AI and Infrastructure are Unbundling the "Artisanal" VC

Aki Kakko
4 minutes ago
3 min read

In the debate over the future of venture capital, defenders of the status quo often retreat to a final, emotional bunker: "You are underestimating the importance of brand and people." The argument suggests that VC is an artisanal, boutique industry built on human "magic"—unique intuition, exclusive networks, and the "value-add" of the General Partner. But as asset classes mature, "magic" is always replaced by physics. The reality is that the "people" element of venture capital is largely a high-priced, low-frequency consultancy service. And like all consultancy services in 2026, it is being disrupted by AI and infrastructure.

The "Value-Add" Illusion

Traditional VCs justify their high fees (2/20) and rigid 10-year structures by promising to "help build the company." They offer hiring help, strategic advice, and introductions. However, if you strip away the capital, a VC firm is essentially a consulting firm with a balance sheet. The problem with human-led consulting is that it is:

Non-Scalable: A partner can only sit on a handful of boards and give advice to a few founders at a time.
High-Latency: A founder needs an answer at 2:00 AM on a Sunday, not at a scheduled board meeting three weeks away.
Low-Resolution: Human memory and networks are limited. A partner’s Rolodex is a static, decaying database compared to a real-time network graph.

The Algorithmic Unbundling

The "people" part of the VC moat is currently being unbundled by specialized infrastructure.

Networking & Intros: Tools like Boardy are proving that AI-driven networking—mapping trillions of connection points to facilitate the "perfect" intro—is more efficient than a human partner's "warm intro."
Operations & Infrastructure: New platforms like Meritocratic.Capital or Carta that could expand into funding rails, while Wefunder and Hiive are already democratizing access. When the "legal and capital" rails become software, the GP's role as a gatekeeper of "the deal" evaporates.
Strategic Advice: As we’ve seen in other sectors, AI models trained on vast proprietary datasets are already providing higher-resolution competitive analysis and growth strategies than a human who reads three pitch decks a day.

When the "consultancy" part of VC becomes a commodity, the traditional firm is left with nothing but a brand—and brand is a lagging indicator.

Brand is the Last Refuge of the Legacy Model

The biggest firms raised the most capital last year because LPs are "trading brands" to minimize career risk. They aren't investing in Alpha; they are buying an insurance policy against looking stupid. But a brand cannot protect a broken structure forever. If the "people" are just consultants who can be replaced by AI-driven infrastructure, and the "structure" is a 10-year closed-end fund that kills compounding, the brand eventually becomes a liability—a signal of high fees and slow speed.

The Inevitable Disruption

The future of funding will not be "more of the same" consolidated into a few mega-firms. It will be fundamentally different. We are moving from Artisanal Renting to Industrial Ownership.

From People to Infrastructure: Instead of a partner "helping" you hire, you use a platform (like VentureOS) that provides automated growth utilities and AI-driven talent mapping.
From Selection to Indexing: Instead of a GP "picking" a winner in a coffee shop, the capital indexes the Inception Slope via behavioral data.
From Boutique Funds to Permanent Holding Companies: Instead of "trading" companies every 10 years, vehicles like Meritocratic.Capital provide permanent support, creating liquidity via their own IPOs rather than forcing the "exit" of the assets.

The Machine Wins

The defenders of "Brand and People" are looking at the history of the 20th century. We are looking at the physics of the 21st. When a founder can access capital through a Programmable Term Sheet, growth through a Self-Service Platform, and networking through AI Infrastructure, the traditional VC becomes an expensive relic. The "magic" of the partner is being replaced by the efficiency of the machine. The brand will follow the performance, and the performance is moving toward the infrastructure.