Thomson Reuters Ventures, the corporate VC fund of Thomson Reuters, invests in early-stage technology companies and helps them scale by connecting founders with Thomson Reuters products, expertise, and customer channels across areas like legal tech, tax and accounting, fintech, and risk/fraud/compliance. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Thomson Reuters Ventures Managing Director Tamara Steffens to discuss 2026 predictions.
Prediction: AI investment will shift decisively toward the application layer as enterprises prioritize workflow-specific outcomes over foundation model experimentation.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): Have you seen any interesting cases of this in your line of work?
Thomson Reuters Ventures (Tamara): Public market investors, for example, have begun rotating their positions from companies like Nvidia toward AI application companies. SoftBank Group exemplifies this shift, having publicly announced the sale of its approximately $5.8 billion position in Nvidia in order to invest in companies such as OpenAI. At the same time, venture funds have deployed extensive capital into foundational model companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, while large AI labs at Meta and Google continue to advance large language model capabilities. All of this investment activity has strengthened the AI infrastructure available for developing high-quality workflow solutions, which are now being deployed across an expanding range of tasks and industry-specific workflows. Legal workflow automation, tax preparation, and financial fraud investigation are three areas Thomson Reuters Ventures tracks closely that clearly demonstrate this trend.
Prediction: Software will increasingly take on work traditionally done by highly skilled professionals, and companies will begin to see meaningful financial impact on operating costs and productivity.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): What do you think the pros and cons are of this prediction?
Thomson Reuters Ventures (Tamara): The pros of this trend are significant. There is a large opportunity for software to take on repeatable, complex work, which frees up highly skilled professionals to spend more of their time on higher‑value, strategic activities. In turn, professionals get to create more space in their work week. It also enables professional services firms to scale in ways that were previously not possible, serving more clients and tackling more sophisticated problems. The main downside is that the rapid pace of change creates added pressure on both organizations and individual professionals. They must rapidly upskill, adopt new tools, and change long‑standing work habits in order to fully capture the benefits of AI, which can be challenging from a change‑management and cultural perspective.
Prediction: Vertical AI applications will continue to attract aggressive funding as their ROI becomes even more evident.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): Are there any specific industries that have interested you for investment?
Thomson Reuters Ventures (Tamara): At Thomson Reuters Ventures, our focus is on anything that impacts the professional services or outsourced labor markets. We are particularly interested in vertical AI applications across Legal, Tax, Accounting, Audit, Financial Services, Corporate Tax and Trade, and News. These sectors are rich with complex, repetitive, and highly regulated workflows where AI can deliver clear, measurable ROI and durable competitive advantage.
Prediction: M&A activity will surge as incumbents acquire AI capabilities to stay competitive and avoid disruption.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): Have any recent deals in your portfolio reflected this prediction?
Thomson Reuters Ventures (Tamara): Yes, we are already seeing this prediction play out in our own activity. We recently announced the acquisition of a company called Additive. Although Additive was not in our existing portfolio, we had planned to participate in their next funding round and instead chose to acquire the company because we believed the technology was critical to our markets and would significantly accelerate our AI roadmap. We took a similar approach with a company called SafeSign. More broadly, our acquisition strategy over the past three years has focused on bringing in AI capabilities that can rapidly elevate Thomson Reuters’ position in AI. For example, our work with companies such as Materia (which originated in our portfolio) are strong illustrations of how targeted acquisitions and partnerships can change the trajectory and speed of AI development.
Prediction: Founders will be expected to build real, durable businesses with clear paths to profitability — hype cycles will no longer bridge weak fundamentals.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): If hype cycles no longer carry weak companies, which types of AI business models are most likely to survive this transition?
Thomson Reuters Ventures (Tamara): The AI businesses most likely to thrive in this environment will be those that produce, have privileged access to, and properly integrate high‑value, hard‑to‑replicate data. Companies that can build products around unique datasets and embed that data deeply into their workflows will be better positioned to insulate themselves from commoditization and to build defensible moats around their businesses.
Prediction: VCs will need to evolve beyond capital deployment and serve as true strategic partners to help portfolio companies differentiate and scale.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): What should portfolio companies expect VCs to actually do differently day-to-day to help them stand out and grow?
Thomson Reuters Ventures (Tamara): Portfolio companies should expect their VCs to contribute far more than capital. At a minimum, investors should be able to help with strategy, talent acquisition, and scaling operations. Founders should feel empowered to ask pointed questions to determine whether a prospective investor can truly support them in these areas. The best investors also bring differentiated advantages around partnerships, access to distribution, and critical industry relationships that can accelerate sales and market expansion for portfolio companies. In practice, this means being actively involved in refining go‑to‑market strategies, opening doors to key customers and collaborators, and helping founders navigate inflection points as they grow.
Prediction: The IPO window will continue to open in 2026, fueled by pressure from early investors and improved market stability.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): What steps should late-stage companies take now to position themselves to take advantage of a reopened IPO market in 2026?
Thomson Reuters Ventures (Tamara): Late‑stage companies that want to be ready for a more open IPO window in 2026 should start preparing now. First, they must ensure that their finances are in excellent order, as scrutiny in the public markets remains extremely high. This includes robust reporting, predictable revenue and margin profiles, and clear visibility into future growth. Second, companies need an extremely clear and compelling narrative around how AI impacts or accelerates the markets they serve. Public market investors will be looking for evidence that AI is not just a buzzword, but a true driver of differentiation, efficiency, and long‑term value creation in the business.
