# Firms should turn their best people's judgment into systems

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/firms-should-turn-their-best-peoples-judgment-into-systems/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Gabe Stengel](https://realalpha.app/builders/gabe-stengel/) · Gabe Stengel is co-founder of Rogo, an AI platform for financial institutions. · Co-founded Rogo, an AI platform for finance, after working as an investment banker at Lazard.
- Host: [Patrick O'Shaughnessy](https://realalpha.app/people/patrick-oshaughnessy/) · CEO, Positive Sum · Founded Colossus, the network behind Founders and Business Breakdowns.
- Show: Invest Like the Best
- Episode: [Why OpenAI and Anthropic Won't Win Finance](https://realalpha.app/v/B0illwrqUG0/), Sep 22, 2026
- Moment: 53:29 to 58:02 of the episode (5 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/firms-should-turn-their-best-peoples-judgment-into-systems/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/B0illwrqUG0/?t=3209

## Quote

> “the world's best investment firms, best banks will have 90% of their enterprise value, **not in people, but in software** and data”
> — [Gabe Stengel](https://realalpha.app/builders/gabe-stengel/) at [56:42](https://realalpha.app/v/B0illwrqUG0/?t=3402) · Invest Like the Best

## Takeaways

1. Ask what your firm would do if its value shifted from people to systems.
2. Capture experts' knowledge in systems the firm owns and operates.
3. Test whether your edge is unique or just expertise AI can reproduce.

## About this segment

Gabe Stengel says finance firms should prepare for enterprise value to shift from people to software and data. He recommends capturing top performers' knowledge and testing whether a firm's supposed edge is truly unique.

From “Why OpenAI and Anthropic Won't Win Finance”, Sep 22, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/B0illwrqUG0/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[53:42](https://realalpha.app/v/B0illwrqUG0/?t=3222) services, the last 10, 20 years have been pretty good. You can make a lot of money being a capital allocator, being an investor. It's a very hard industry to enter. And then especially if you're in private markets, your businesses have some natural momentum because when you raise a fund, another fund, another fund, it's hard to mess up the business after that. And I'm sure there's 100 people who have started funds who know it's 100 times harder than I just described. But to be fair, there hasn't been a moment and a shock to the market where every investment firm, every bank is saying, oh, wow, I need to completely rethink what I'm doing. And now there's going to be an opportunity for hundreds of AI native disruptors, AI native investment firms, AI native investment banks to attack my business model. And I need to figure out what I'm going to do now. And there

[54:26](https://realalpha.app/v/B0illwrqUG0/?t=3266) has not been an innovator's dilemma for private equity firms, for hedge funds, for investment banks in a long time. AI native, what does that term mean to you? Like, what is the definition of that. In some ways, I think it just means willing to constantly reinvent everything you're doing and being so AI pilled that you don't worry about what's possible or what might seem completely farfetched, but you are just charting a trajectory towards integrating this alien fundamental technology into everything that you do. And it's showing up in every part of the business and there's no part of the business that you hold sacred that is immune to being revolutionary how do you do that as like so you're a leader in a company that's very ai-pilled that want to make sure do you want to do everything you guys said in rogo and yet i'm sure there are

[55:16](https://realalpha.app/v/B0illwrqUG0/?t=3316) areas that you're unhappy with the status of how much ai is used to do x y or z how do you do it as a leader like how do you make sure that your company keeps doing this as a practice and habit versus like a one time. So I'll give you a very simple thing, which is every month I have a report that gets sent to me that shows me every one of the company, how much are they using the various different AI tools we have, both the ones we've procured, the ones we've built internally, all of these different things. And I have a stack ranking within every division of the top five power users and the bottom five users. And we post that everywhere. And the bottom user in each division gets a printout with a dunce cap and we post it around the office. And it's hilarious, but people know it's coming.

[55:58](https://realalpha.app/v/B0illwrqUG0/?t=3358) And by the way, as we get bigger and fewer people know me and know it's kind of a joke and I'm funny, they're actually terrified. And I hope they're not terrified and I hope that changes, but it's a strong incentive function to actually make sure you're using these things. If you were to list questions, let's say there's someone sitting down that runs one of these firms that's been a great business, hard fought, but a great business.

[56:19](https://realalpha.app/v/B0illwrqUG0/?t=3379) And these businesses tend to be quite simple from an organizational and technical standpoint. It's mostly humans, right? there's not a lot of overhead in lots of these businesses. Maybe they buy a lot of data or something. What questions would you encourage them to ask of themselves, of their business, to stand the best chance of navigating this transition effectively? If you knew for sure that right now, 90% of your enterprise value is in your people, your best investors, your best bankers are the people that bring in deals, bring in revenue.

[56:51](https://realalpha.app/v/B0illwrqUG0/?t=3411) And actually that's what accrues enterprise value. And in 10 years, the world's best investment firms, best banks will have 90% of their enterprise value, not in people, but in software and data and systems, what would you start doing? You would start trying to figure out how do you take all of what lives in the latent minds of your best people and putting it into a system that you own and operate autonomously. So that's a big one. The second thing I would think about is unpack every part of the deal life cycle. And in each one, try and chart where do you think you are invaluable or you have data or you have domain expertise that no one else has and then be diligent about saying, okay, do I actually have something that no one else has in this market? And is it a relationship? Is it context that no one else has? Or do I just think

[57:38](https://realalpha.app/v/B0illwrqUG0/?t=3458) I'm smarter and better read on the subject area in the market? In which case. AI is going to obviate that. Have you seen anyone be the most cutting edge exemplar of this attitude in a big firm? Is there a favorite example of a person that's just