Simpro Group CEO Fred Voccola says the bar for AI monetization is rising as investors separate software companies delivering real AI revenue from those still riding the hype cycle. He argues established platforms with proprietary customer data have an advantage, highlighting Salesforce (CRM) and ServiceNow (NOW) as better positioned than Adobe (ADBE) to build and monetize AI applications. Voccola also discusses the challenges facing AI-native startups and expects hardware and software to become increasingly intertwined as the AI market evolves.