Most of the operating partners I sat with last week in Santa Monica want AI outcomes. A lot of their portcos still do not have basic CRM.
That gap is the story. I went to my first LPGP Operating Partners Summit at the Regent in Santa Monica. The room was full of people whose job is to turn investment theses into operating results. AI showed up on every panel. The useful conversation was not about models. It was about measured investments, where not to use AI, and the boring infrastructure that still decides whether any of it sticks.
Here are my ten takes, expanded, plus the hot take that still sits with me.
AI panels talked outcomes, not demos
AI was on every panel. The conversation was different from what I hear at GTM or RevOps conferences. Less technical depth. More business depth: outcomes, measured investments, ROI. Many people shared use cases that are working. There was also a lot of talk about where not to use AI.
That matches what the survey data is starting to show. In Alvarez and Marsal’s European value creation survey (early 2026, 200 PE investors and portco executives), 63 percent of respondents now use AI as part of their value creation activity, up from 41 percent the year before. The top barrier is not curiosity. Sixty percent cite high cost and uncertain return on investment. Forty-five percent point to data quality and availability.
In Alvarez and Marsal’s North America survey (100 PE investors, operating partners, and PE-backed executives), 73 percent expect AI to increase portfolio value over the next 12 months. Only 8 percent describe their firm as “leading.” Expectation is high. Repeatable impact is still early.
PE firms disagree on how hands-on to be
PE firms have different philosophies on how involved they get with portcos. Some are very hands on. Others start a play through the CEO and let them run with it.
Both models can work. The risk is the same either way: a value creation plan that looks sharp in diligence and then stalls in the hold. Alvarez and Marsal’s European survey found 65 percent of respondents achieved less than half of the value targeted in plans developed over the past two years. Fifty-eight percent now deploy value creation resources within the first 100 days, up from 29 percent the year before. Front-loading execution is becoming the default, because hold periods are longer and the easy financial-engineering levers are thinner.
McKinsey’s June 2026 piece on PE value creation puts numbers on the operating build-out. Since 2021, private equity firms have more than doubled the size of their operating groups on average. Hold periods now run more than six and a half years on average. More operators in the building does not automatically mean more value delivered. It means the expectation for operating partners is higher.
Talent is scarce, so PE recycles it
Finding talent is hard in the age of AI. That is why PE firms recycle the same talent across portcos.
I get it. When you finally find someone who can stabilize a GTM stack, run a pricing play, or stand up a clean data layer, you do not want to lose them at exit. The flip side is portcos that never build their own bench. If the only people who know how the revenue system works are borrowed from the firm, the company is fragile the day the hold ends.
SaaS turnarounds are harder than the deck says
Turnarounds rarely work out. I see this with many of our SaaS clients. They are in turnaround mode, but it is tough because the era of high margin product software has changed. New models are emerging. PE firms are redoing valuations or cutting bait, and sometimes it does not make sense to keep investing in a turnaround.
The valuation backdrop supports that caution. Software Equity Group’s 2025 Annual SaaS Report put the median EV to trailing-twelve-month revenue multiple for SaaS M and A at 4.1x in 4Q24, up 8 percent year over year, but still settled near the plateau that began after the COVID-driven highs. Private equity was involved in 61 percent of SaaS deals in 2024. Buyers are active. They are also selective. Growth alone does not clear the bar the way it did a few years ago.
The AI playbook is a continuous draft
Operating partners think in playbooks, plays, and frameworks, which I appreciate. My sense is that the AI playbook is a continuous draft. Several people said they avoid long-term contracts with vendors because models and products change every six months.
That is the right instinct if you treat the contract as the strategy. It is the wrong instinct if it becomes an excuse to never ship. Short commitments are fine. Zero reps are not.
Most portcos are still early on AI, and on basics
Most portcos are still shockingly early on AI. Some do not have basic infrastructure like CRM or workforce systems. Many of us live in tech hubs, scroll LinkedIn with FOMO, and go to bleeding-edge revenue conferences. We forget that most companies barely have a basic revenue setup.
The CRM numbers are not as settled as LinkedIn makes them look. Metrigy’s CX MetriCast 2025 study (reported January 2026) found 67.9 percent of organizations using CRM overall. Usage among companies with fewer than 250 employees was 52.5 percent. Among companies with 1,000 to 2,500 employees it was 78.4 percent. Even where CRM is installed, use is uneven. An Insightly and Ascend2 survey of 379 U.S. mid-market GTM professionals (companies with 50 to 500 employees, fielded February and March 2025) found that just 34 percent of teams say they fully embrace and effectively use their CRM.
If half of smaller companies still do not run CRM, and only a third of mid-market teams who have one say they use it well, the AI conversation is jumping a step. Clean data and a working revenue system are still the unlock.
In-person events still work
In-person events work. One hundred percent of the people I talked to responded. That is my own experience in that room, not a market study. What is your outbound response rate? And these are PE pros who rarely respond to outreach.
Nothing beats a five-minute conversation. That is where relationships start, and you never know when something will click. Community and events might be the last channels that still work.
For context on the outbound side, Gradient Works’ 2024 outbound benchmarks (published March 2025) put email response rates around 2.5 percent and LinkedIn outreach around 8 percent. Those are not event response rates, and they are not PE-operating-partner response rates. They are a reminder of how thin cold channels have become. A room where every conversation gets a reply is a different game.
Hooks have to be bigger with operating partners
Hooks have to be bigger with operating partners. They are flooded with vendors. To stand out, you need a compelling offer that is low friction and low risk to try. I could tell which sponsors pulled this off from my own table, because the phones went up to take a picture of the slide.
The boring reason it works: OPs do not have time for a six-call discovery process before they know what they are buying. Give them something they can try without a big commitment. Then earn the next step.
Not all conference rooms are the same
If you are speaking, bring two versions of your talk: one with no slides and one with a few. In this room the slides were hard to see on two small displays. Presenters who relied on slides fell flat, while panels and storytellers landed.
Room design is part of the craft. Do not assume the AV will save a deck-heavy talk.
Learn how your ICP talks
Learn how your ICP talks. I might call something a harness. They call it a studio. I talk about discovery. They talk about FDE engagements. Speaking their language tells them you are paying attention.
This is not branding. It is enrollment. If the first five minutes of a conversation are a translation exercise, you already lost a share of trust.
The takeaway
My hot take: operating partners should treat AI investments like portco investments. Some will work out and some will fail. The key is getting your teams reps. Some of my web friends from the late 90s built really bad products for years, but they were in the game, learning and adapting. I see the same thing with AI. The ones sitting on the sidelines waiting for the perfect use case and ROI are getting left behind.
All in all, a successful event, and it is always nice to spend a few days in Santa Monica.
If you want a plain read of CRM and GTM readiness before you fund the next AI seat, start with a free CRM Health Check. coResolute is a RevOps services firm that designs, builds and runs revenue systems. Contact us. No invoice. No sales pitch.
FAQ
What was the LPGP Operating Partners Summit? The LPGP Connect 2nd Annual Operating Partners Summit West Coast was held in Santa Monica (Regent) on November 5, 2026. It brings together operating partners, value creation leaders, and related roles to talk about portfolio performance, AI, talent, and execution.
What did operating partners say about AI? AI was on every panel, with more focus on outcomes, measured investment, and ROI than on technical demos. Survey data from Alvarez and Marsal in 2026 shows most PE firms now use AI in value creation, while few call themselves leading, and uncertain ROI remains a top barrier.
Why do basic CRM and revenue systems still matter for AI? Because many mid-market and smaller companies still lack strong CRM adoption or effective use. Without clean data and a working revenue system, AI projects stall on the same foundations that stall every other GTM initiative.
How should PE firms fund AI inside portcos? Treat AI bets like portco investments: fund a few that can fail, demand reps and measured outcomes, keep vendor contracts short while models change, and do not skip basic infrastructure.
What is a CRM Health Check? A free look at your Salesforce or CRM setup that surfaces what is working and what needs attention, without an invoice or a sales pitch. It is a low-friction way to see whether the revenue system can support the AI and GTM work you want next.
