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Jul 13, 2026

Why Most AI Spending Never Reaches the P&L | Jimmy Bijlani, AI Momentum Partners

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Jimmy Bijlani, founder and CEO of AI Momentum Partners, joins Stu Willson to explain why so much AI spend never reaches the P&L. He works almost entirely with PE-backed companies, underwriting the AI opportunity against the P&L before anyone spends a cent, then staying in the building to deliver the margin. The conversation covers why "AI adoption" is a feeling not a number, the shift from the rule of 40 to the rule of 60, who should actually own AI, why adoption metrics can hide a structural zero, and how one automation on software the client already owned produced about $700K in NPV.

chapters
19 marks
00:00
Activity vs. a real AI program
00:27
Who Jimmy is and who AMP serves
01:21
The one takeaway: tie AI to the P&L
03:08
What AI Momentum Partners actually does
05:24
Where the AI-to-profit gap first showed up (inside Google)
07:52
Who should own AI? The Chief AI Officer problem
11:26
Where to start: the P&L before the platform
14:31
Case study: a PE-backed vertical SaaS company
17:29
Why the CEO brought them in
18:14
What the diligence found: 90% licensed, 60% legacy
22:00
Telling people the hard truth without losing them
25:34
Getting managers onside when headcount is at stake
28:42
Why they built on tools the client already owned
32:00
The first automation: pro-serve docs and $700K NPV
34:08
The after-state and the real return
36:49
What "sticking around to deliver" looks like
40:16
Why PE targets don't connect to AI work
42:28
What boards will demand in a few years
45:28
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