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Key Takeaways Artificial intelligence is transforming M&A, allowing for rapid data analysis and strategic insights, outpacing traditional methods.
AI automates parts of the acquisition process, from identifying targets to due diligence, significantly reducing time and enhancing decision-making.
Despite AI’s impact, successful M&A still relies on the human touch for experience-based instincts and relationship management.
Throughout my career as a lawyer and public company executive, I have led more than 25 mergers and acquisitions, and until recently, each one of these deals has followed a predictable pattern. This traditional model involved long nights buried in diligence binders, endless email chains to obtain critical details regarding the target company and repeated diligence conversations.
However, the old world of deal-making is gone. A new player has emerged: artificial intelligence.
AI has quietly rewritten the entire M&A playbook. Instead of spending hours reviewing complex deal binders, sending emails and locating targets, AI can perform all these tasks in minutes if not seconds. Deals are still about people and strategy — that won’t change — but the way we find, evaluate and integrate companies is changing faster than any other time in history.
Related: Most Founders Think They Know AI — But They’re Using It Wrong. Here’s How to Drive Real Growth
Finding the right targets in a world of infinite data
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