Good News For Startups: Enterprise Is Bad At AI

Y Combinator October 30, 2025
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MIT's new State of AI in Business report went viral for claiming that 95% of enterprise AI projects fail. But the real story isn't that AI doesn't work — it's just big companies can't build it. In this episode of the Lightcone, Garry, Harj, Diana, and Jared break down what the study really says, why in-house enterprise AI efforts keep stalling, and how startups are filling the gap with products that learn, integrate, and actually deliver value. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 2:08 The enterprise AI adoption gap and why the failure rate is high 3:32 Even Apple can be bad at software 4:30 Why getting enterprise software to actually work is so hard 11:08 The Reducto case study 13:39 The type of enterprise employee you should find as a founder 14:39 Meet founders who’ve been acquired by enterprises 15:25 Enterprise/startup tension and symbiosis 19:40 Outro Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs