Investment letters
Is AI a threat to digital business models? Not quite
10-Mar-2026
Zak Smerczak
Analyst / Portfolio Manager
Key Takeaways
- AI is reshaping the future of software services, but does it mark the end of the road for data providers and digital business models?
- Guided by our quality growth investment approach, we seek digital business models that can become more essential as AI adoption accelerates.
- Our research highlights a diverse mix of software providers, data platforms and digital payment models across the US, Europe and Asia with strong durable competitive advantages.
- In our view, these moats are rooted in proprietary, high-quality data, sustained innovation and deeply customer-embedded workflows that are difficult to replace.
The limits of AI “vibe-coding”
In 2002, Watts S. Humphrey, an American pioneer of software engineering, argued that every company was becoming a software company. In retrospect, his observation was prescient. At the time, technology providers such as Microsoft relied on the physical distribution of CD-ROMs to install software. For access to any upgrades, customers would then have to purchase new boxed versions of software products such as Microsoft Windows or Word.
