When Airtree Ventures appointed 37-year-old partner Elicia McDonald as its first chief executive last week, one of Australia’s biggest and most influential venture capital firms was making an admission that the traditional model of tech investment needed to shift for the artificial intelligence era.

Like law firms, VC has largely followed a cosy partnership model in which key decisions are debated among the owners. However, as AI speeds up the potential for companies to fly or fail, Airtree is among the first to decide they need someone calling the shots.