Dr. Johannes Lenhard is CEO of Reframe Venture, a nonprofit working with 200 VC and PE funds and 120 LPs on responsible investment integration. He is also an affiliated lecturer at the University of Cambridge, where he earned his PhD in anthropology. In this episode, he joins Jenn to ask whether the private markets industry is doing its due diligence on AI and whether the lessons learned from ESG over the past decade can help it move faster this time.
Episode 49
Johannes Lenhard
Johannes Lenhard: AI Governance
The FOMO Problem
The release of ChatGPT triggered a wave of AI investment driven more by fear of missing out than by rigorous analysis. Most GPs still do not have a coherent set of questions to ask about responsible AI in due diligence, and many LPs are not yet equipped to scrutinise the answers they receive. Johannes argues that getting into the right round matters more than getting into the hyped one.
Corporates as a Corrective Force
One underappreciated check on a lack of AI governance is the corporate buyer. Large organisations have strict internal guardrails around what AI products they will deploy, and they have the firepower to enforce them. Companies that build responsibly are finding it easier to sell into that market which, Johannes argues, makes the financial case for responsible AI increasingly straightforward.
The ESG Lesson
The private markets industry spent years tying itself in knots over ESG language, swinging from enthusiasm to retreat without always asking whether the underlying work was sound. Johannes thinks the same mistake is being made with AI governance, and that the more useful question has always been a simple one: does this connect to the bottom line?