10:53 AM PST · January 7, 2026
29 min
Vanessa Larco, partner at Premise and erstwhile spouse astatine NEA, thinks 2026 volition yet beryllium the twelvemonth of user AI.
Larco, who’s been investing successful user and prosumer for years, thinks we’re astir to spot a displacement successful however consumers walk clip online, with AI powering “concierge-like” services. The question is, volition bequest user products similar WebMD and TripAdvisor proceed to beryllium arsenic standalone apps, oregon volition they conscionable get absorbed into ChatGPT oregon Meta AI? And wherever tin startups carve retired an AI-powered niche for themselves
Watch arsenic TechCrunch’s Rebecca Bellan sat down with Larco connected Equity to speech astir wherefore user is back, what OpenAI won’t kill, and wherever the existent opportunities are hiding.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and each the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, astatine @EquityPod.
Theresa Loconsolo is an audio shaper astatine TechCrunch focusing connected Equity, the network’s flagship podcast. Before joining TechCrunch successful 2022, she was 1 of 2 producers astatine a four-station conglomerate wherever she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and engineered unrecorded performances and interviews from guests similar lovelytheband. Theresa is based successful New Jersey and holds a bachelors grade successful Communication from Monmouth University.
You tin interaction oregon verify outreach from Theresa by emailing theresa.loconsolo@techcrunch.com.
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