The Alexa Fund is a good example - Amazon wants to create an ecosystem of innovation and development around Alexa voice technology, perhaps one of the clearer examples of AI today, and is shoveling cash into the space.
Big enterprises have brought the VC model in-house, closer to R&D and the problems they need to solve because most of these companies are flush with cash and facing a declining number of good ROI bets coming out of their actual R&D departments.
To stay relevant A16z needs to pick the SMB fruit that doesn't have access to its own in-house VC biz.
Notice how the document is aimed at people who own their own biz - "What can you do with AI?" "Applying AI to your business" etc.
They're hoping to stumble on SMB teams/problems that can solve a SMB problem quicker than a solution a huge enterprise can incubate in-house, then either scale it up to a late-round/pre IPO private company or sell it off to a large enterprise for the exit.
Agreed that part of that is just asking the question - have you thought about what this new technology could do for your SMB? As well as being a thought-leader in the space and putting out some educational docs so that people know A16z has a good handle on the latest AI craze and a framework for monetizing it.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/valleyvoices/2017/02/14/corpora...