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1,600 AI PROJECTS SOUND LIKE INNOVATION UNTIL YOU HAVE TO GOVERN THEM.
Hg recently said it has more than 1,600 live AI projects across its portfolio, representing more than $260 million of budgeted EBITDA impact. That is impressive. But it also reveals the next problem private equity has to solve: HOW DO YOU MANAGE AI AT PORTFOLIO SCALE? Imagine owning 100 companies. Each company begins deploying: AI agents. Different models. Different vendors. Different security controls. Different data access. Different approval structures. Different measures of ROI. At the company level, each decision may make perfect sense. At the portfolio level, something very different begins to appear. Duplication. Fragmentation. Uncontrolled authority. Vendor concentration. Inconsistent governance. And multiple companies solving the same problem independently. That creates an opportunity. PRIVATE EQUITY MAY NEED A PORTFOLIO AI CONTROL PLANE. Not a central system that runs every portfolio company. A common architecture that allows investors to understand: → What AI capabilities are being deployed? → What are they costing? → What business value are they creating? → What data can they access? → What authority has been delegated to agents? → Where are multiple companies buying…