With technology progressing and artificial intelligence dominating almost every field, Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath suggested that start-ups stop boasting about using AI, saying it's as impressive as bragging that you took a shower this morning.
Exhausted by an endless flood of generic ‘nice-looking’ investment pitch decks, the entrepreneur warned founders that leading with the AI buzzword is a guaranteed way to make serious investors roll their eyes and move on.
“The number of investment decks I get leading with ‘we use AI’ is ridiculous,” Kamath said in a LinkedIn post. “It’s reached a point where it automatically makes my eyes roll, and I’ve almost stopped looking at them.”
Kamath said that the startup founders today “need to realise that AI is just table stakes now.” — “Bragging that your product uses AI is like bragging that you take a bath every day.”
He said that using AI is no longer a differentiator. “In fact, opening your pitch with it is a surefire way to get ignored, not just by us, but by most serious VCs,” Kamath said.
The Zerodha co-founder suggested that founders should be more careful now that they have the “exact same generic” tools to generate “nice-looking” decks.
“Especially now that AI has democratised the ability to generate ‘nice-looking’ decks, the last thing you want to do is say the exact same generic things as every other founder using the exact same tools,” Kamath wrote.
In a follow-up comment, Nithin Kamath said that the fundamental questions are: Why AI? How do you manage security risk? Continuous evaluation, especially of the high-stakes decisions. “Do you know your workflow, exceptions, Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed (RACI)?”
Several founders on Nithin Kamath's network commented on his post, agreeing with his AI analysis. Each founder also pitched their suggestions on how startup founders can add differentiators to their pitches.
“Completely agree,” said a social media user. “AI has become infrastructure, not the product. The real differentiator is solving a painful problem with proprietary workflows, data, and execution. We're building an ESOP platform ourselves, and AI is a small part of the experience—not the reason it exists. Users don't pay for AI. They pay for outcomes.”
“Interesting point,” another noted. “AI is becoming infrastructure rather than differentiation, so leading with the technology says very little about why the business deserves attention. The stronger pitch is probably what becomes possible because of AI that wasn’t economically or technically viable before.”
“‘We use AI’ is rapidly becoming the startup equivalent of ‘we have a website’. The question investors care about is: What can you do that others can't?” suggested a founder.
Another said that it is becoming the new “we’re disrupting the industry.” “As a founder building with AI, I’ve realised the harder question isn’t can AI do this? — It’s why this needs to exist, who actually needs it, and why they would keep using it? AI is becoming infrastructure. The real differentiation is the problem you understand, the product you build around it, and the users you can earn,” the founder added.
A user suggested: “The useful test for founders: if your competitor swapped in the same model tomorrow, what would still be true about your product? If the answer is nothing, AI was never the pitch. Proprietary data, a workflow you rebuilt, distribution nobody else has. Those survive a model upgrade. ‘We use AI’ resets to zero the moment anyone else does.”
Arshdeep Kaur is a Senior Content Producer at Mint, where she reports and edits across national and international politics, business and culture‑adjacent trending stories for digital audience. With five years in the newsroom, she strives to balance the speed and rigor of fast‑moving news cycles and longer, context‑rich explainers. <br><br> Before joining LiveMint, Arshdeep served as a Senior Sub‑Editor at Business Standard and earlier as a Sub‑Editor at Asian News International (ANI). Her experience spans live news flows, enterprise features, and multi‑platform packaging. <br><br> At Mint, she regularly writes explainers, quick takes, and visuals‑led stories that are optimized for search and social, while maintaining the publication’s standards for accuracy and clarity. She collaborates closely with editors and the audience team to frame angles that resonate with readers in India and abroad, and to translate complex developments into accessible, high‑impact journalism. <br><br> Arshdeep's academic training underpins her interest towards policy and markets. She earned an MA in Economics from Panjab University and holds a Post‑Graduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism from the India Today Media Institute (ITMI). This blend of economics and broadcast storytelling informs her coverage of public policy, elections, macro themes, and the consumer‑internet zeitgeist. <br><br> Arshdeep is based in New Delhi, where she tracks breaking developments and longer‑horizon storylines that shape public discourse.