An entrepreneur's mindset can differ from other investors. They often make business decisions with incomplete information and evaluate emerging opportunities before they become mainstream.
Maybe that’s why more than half (52%) of business owners in our latest study, The Intelligent Investor: Insights on AI-Forward Investing, report regularly using AI-driven tools to support financial decision-making, compared with just 28% of non-business owners. Another 13% of the entrepreneurs we polled say their decisions are now primarily AI-led, more than double the 5% reported by non-business owners.
Could this mean that the entrepreneurial mindset developed through building and scaling a business creates a distinct advantage in the age of AI?
AI Analysis in the Business Owner Portfolio
While both groups express openness toward AI-assisted investing, business owners demonstrate substantially greater confidence in allowing AI to play a central role.
Nearly all business owners (94%) say they would trust a wealth advisor who incorporates AI into the investment process. More notably, 40% say they would trust AI as a primary decision engine for portfolio optimization, compared with just 11% of non-business owners.
It’s possible that a willingness to delegate portions of the analytical process to AI reflects a broader entrepreneurial tendency: leveraging tools, systems and technology to improve business outcomes while maintaining strategic oversight. Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for human judgement, many business owners appear to see it as an enhancement to the decision-making process.
How Much of a Founder’s Portfolio is AI?
Business owners have joined the rest of the market in their enthusiasm for AI growth. But how much are founders allocating to the AI value chain?
Fifty-five percent of business owners report actively investing in companies with significant exposure to AI technology, compared with 43% of non-business owners.
Their conviction extends beyond public markets. Forty-two percent of business owners report actively investing in AI startups, three times the rate of non-business owners (14%.)
Business owners may be applying the same framework they use to evaluate operating businesses to emerging AI opportunities: allocating capital to AI-related investments that reflect the vision and conviction that shaped their own companies.
Seeing AI as a Source of Future Opportunity
Business owners also exhibit a notably stronger belief in AI’s long-term investment potential.
Ninety-one percent of entrepreneurs agree that AI will be critical in identifying future investment opportunities, compared with 72% of non-business owners.
This reinforces a broader theme throughout the research: business owners appear more inclined to view AI as a strategic advantage rather than merely an efficiency tool.
Their experience building businesses may make them more comfortable recognizing the value of technological inflection points before they become widely adopted.
From Entrepreneur to Investor
The same qualities that help entrepreneurs build successful businesses may influence how they approach investing in the AI era.
Business owners are using AI more frequently in financial decision-making, placing greater trust in AI-enabled investment processes, allocating more capital to AI-related opportunities, and expressing stronger conviction about AI’s role in shaping future returns.
If business owners are applying any lesson from their own entrepreneurial experience, it may be this: identify opportunities, act with conviction, and combine new tools with trusted human advisors.
