Does AI still make you stand out?

Startups that pitch AI reach our investment committee 56% of the time against 34% without AI. This year, decks that only say AI get less credit. What to show instead.

It does, but only when the pitch deck shows what the AI does. We looked at the decks founders sent when they applied to BADideas for funding. Pitching AI helps a startup reach our investment committee, but it matters that the AI is more than a label.

Most pitches now say AI

In 2025, 59% of the companies from Central and Eastern Europe that applied to BADideas said AI was in their product. In 2026 so far it is 78%.

We read every deck and sorted them by what the AI actually does. About half of the decks that mention AI build the product around it. The AI is the reason the product works: it takes actions on its own, it writes or analyses with language models, or it predicts from the company's own data. About a fifth add AI as one feature to a product that would work without it. The rest only use the word. They never say what the AI does, or it is still a plan.

Others see the same shift. In Y Combinator's autumn 2025 batch, 92% of the companies put AI at the core of their product.

AI goes further than no AI

Investors want AI. So far in 2026, AI startups have taken more than half of the venture capital invested in Europe (Dealroom, 2026). We see the same at our first screen. Startups whose deck mentions AI reached our investment committee 56% of the time. Startups without AI reached it 34% of the time. The gap holds when we compare like with like. Among companies with no revenue yet it is 46% against 26%. Among companies with revenue it is 71% against 49%.

We now tell real AI from the word

Among the decks that mention AI, what the AI does now matters. In 2025, decks that only said AI reached our committee almost as often as decks built on AI: 57% against 61%. Our first screen gave the word nearly full credit. In 2026 decks that only say AI reached it 47% of the time, while decks built on AI stayed at 61%. We have learned to tell the two apart.

The reason is simple. When most decks say AI, the word no longer tells an investor anything. What still tells them something is what the AI does and whether it works.

Other investors notice the difference too. In a 2026 survey by Angel Investment Network, 54% of angel investors said they had turned down a deal because its AI claims were empty (Angel Investment Network, 2026).

What it means when you apply

If AI is part of your product, show what it does. Name the task it does and for whom. Say what it runs on: your own data, a model you trained, or a model from one of the big AI labs. Give one result, such as a customer, a time saved or an error rate. If the AI is still a plan, say that it is a plan. Use the word agent only if your software acts on its own.

If AI is not part of your product, you do not need to add it. A clear problem, early customers and a team that can sell still get read on their own terms. But the bar is higher than it was, because more of the companies around you are building with AI.