Vertical artificial intelligence is a tool that solves well-defined tasks in specific industries. Tech entrepreneur and founder of the Tokarev Foundation Sergey Tokarev believes that this is why this technology is one of the most promising areas for investment in the next 24–36 months. The reason is simple: highly specialised solutions will be an integral part of real business processes and will form the basis of value creation in the AI market in 2026.
‘Unlike horizontal AI, which is more of a general-purpose tool, vertical AI is less likely to fade away, as has already happened with prompt engineering tools,’ says the investor.
Vertical and horizontal AI
Horizontal services and companies are building large-scale foundation models. They are developing in an environment of excessive investment concentration among a limited number of players, such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI. Therefore, vertical AI is developing in a healthier investment landscape.
Over the past year, more than half of AI capital has been invested in large AI labs, and 90% of these funds have gone to mega-rounds for a small group of companies. For most venture capital funds, this makes it difficult to form a repeatable and diversified strategy.
‘In vertical AI, funds are distributed among different regions and industries, and competition grows naturally due to the deep integration of such solutions into operational processes,’ said the founder of the Tokarev Foundation.
The IT entrepreneur highlights several industries in which vertical artificial intelligence has already demonstrated its capabilities:
- In finance, investors are paying attention to audit and accounting services that automate all work: document verification, report preparation, and control testing.
- In the legal sector, where up to 60% of time is spent on routine work, solutions for litigation and small business services are being developed.
- In procurement, where companies still work with Excel and email, a separate niche is opening up for AI platforms that offer ‘smart’ planning and decision support without massive ERP systems.
Sergey Tokarev is confident that the next 2–3 years will determine the leaders in the vertical Artificial Intelligence category, because as horizontal tools struggle to adapt to real business constraints, and existing players are developing more slowly than the market requires. When such systems become an integral part of procurement, financial, and legal processes, the cost of changing suppliers will rise sharply, and markets will consolidate.
