The 5 things everyone should know about cloud AI, according to a Sequoia Capital partner

If you ask Sequoia Capital partner and early-stage investor Konstantine Buhler about the role of artificial intelligence in cloud computing, his answer is unequivocal: "Cloud is going to become AI," he told Insider. "I mean, all of the cloud will be based on AI." Snowflake's $3.4 billion initial public offering and DataBricks' $1 billion funding round over the past year suggest big things ahead for AI in the cloud, and the industry is estimated at $40 billion and climbing. Major platforms like Amazon's AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud -- as well as a host of startups -- sell cloud-based tools and services for data labeling, automation, natural language processing, image recognition, and more, making it more affordable than ever before for firms to dabble in AI. Buhler, who has a master's degree in artificial intelligence engineering from Stanford, revels in AI's contributions, but also insists that the sector be demystified, and basic business fundamentals applied to it. His investments include CaptivateIQ, which automates business commissions, and Verkada, a security camera company that uses AI to recognize information like license plate numbers.