The artificial intelligence (AI) startup market is vast and diverse, with companies developing new chips, building robots, and creating niche solutions for industry-specific workflows. Amidst this sprawl, venture capitalists are pinpointing specific areas that excite them the most. According to a recent survey by TechCrunch, 20 VCs who invest in startups selling to enterprises predict that AI solutions for specific tasks and reliability will be top investment areas in 2025.

Mark Rostick, vice president and senior managing director at Intel Capital, believes that now that large foundational models have been established, the next interesting area to invest in is AI solutions for specific tasks. "I find models that excel at specific functions particularly intriguing, especially when combined with agents built on top of them," Rostick said. He expects application-focused companies to take center stage as CEOs increasingly seek ways to leverage AI in specific areas that deliver tangible, transformative impact.

Mike Hayes, managing director at Insight Partners, echoed Rostick's sentiments, looking to back companies building products that use AI to reduce business friction. "I look for solutions that solve unique, orthogonal challenges for enterprises — areas where traditional solutions have fallen short," Hayes said. This includes vertical and persona-specific workflows reimagined with GenAI or agentic automation and security innovations that do not only identify and alert but also remediate.

However, VCs interested in investing in companies targeting specific enterprise use cases must ensure that these startup solutions are indeed companies, rather than just features. This is crucial to avoid a repeat of the SaaS boom in 2021, when many companies that were essentially one-note features raised significant venture capital before being left behind in favor of companies offering platform solutions when enterprise budgets contracted in 2023.

There are, of course, tasks that are important enough to warrant a single-feature solution. For SaaS, cybersecurity solutions are a prime example. However, it's unclear what point solutions enterprises will be willing to pay for in the AI space. Ed Sim, founder and general partner at Boldstart Ventures, acknowledged this challenge, stating, "The trick is skating to where the puck will be and also thinking through is this a feature, or a product, or a business."

Another area VCs are excited about is reliability and resiliency. Jason Mendel, an investor at Battery Ventures, is looking to invest in companies in the observability and reliability space. Liran Grinberg, co-founder and managing partner at Team8, has his sights set on "enterprise resilience." The Crowdstrike software update incident demonstrated how fragile our digital world is, not only due to cyber attackers but also just mistakes, highlighting the need for more resilient, anti-fragile digital infrastructure by design.

AI infrastructure will also remain a hot area of investment in 2025. VCs cited the advancements regarding AI agents, and they are looking into the infrastructure needed for enterprises to adopt the tech, as well as companies that can help figure out pricing for AI agents. "It's still very early innings here, and I believe that momentum for AI infrastructure will continue into 2025, particularly as agentic frameworks proliferate, new model paradigms (including reasoning) develop, edge AI advances, and UI/UX of AI applications evolve (including computer use)," said Janelle Teng, vice president at Bessemer Venture Partners.

In conclusion, VCs are betting on AI solutions for specific tasks and reliability to be top investment areas in 2025. As the AI startup market continues to evolve, it's clear that these areas will play a critical role in shaping the industry's future. With the potential for transformative impact and enterprise adoption, it's no wonder VCs are excited about the prospects of these subsectors.