Strategic M&A has definitely picked up now that the first tranch of AI startups in Seed to Series B stage are hitting the 2-3 year mark and the dust has somewhat settled on how to evaluate a target's AI thesis independently from their distribution thesis.

It'll be an interesting opportunity to see if firms with significant dry powder can successfully leverage M&A to execute internal strategy shifts to build a defensible AI story - especially implementation and services firms like the Accentures and TCSes of the world.