I recall my first AI Due Diligence Experience back in 2018, where I was across the table from a Cambridge University AI expert and his firm. He’d built a multi-tiered system and parts of the code ‘wrote itself’. It was neat but the truth was I was out of my depth and had some learning to do. This is the great thing about tech – you can never reach ‘expert’ level.
Moving on,In 2023, AI exploded onto board agendas. In 2024, it became table stakes. And here we are in 2025—some companies are still figuring out their stance, and others are already building with it. But regardless of how prominent AI is in your pitch deck, we’re already evaluating it behind the scenes.
At Beyond we’ve started building AI readiness into our due diligence process by default rather than waiting for investors to add it to their scope. Not because it’s trendy, but because the implications—both risks and opportunities—are too significant to ignore.
Even if you’re not positioning as an AI-first company, chances are you’ll need to become one. Or at least be capable of acting like one when the time comes. So we look ahead and ask: if AI were to become a key enabler of your growth, how ready are you?
Here’s how we approach that.
Team & Culture: Is There an AI Owner in the Room?
We start by scanning for signs of ownership. Who, if anyone, is responsible for AI, data strategy, or automation? If it’s everyone’s job, it’s no one’s job.
That doesn’t mean we expect a Chief AI Officer. But we do look for:
- A named leader accountable for exploring AI opportunities
- A clear understanding of where AI could (or shouldn’t) play a role
- Some awareness of compliance, ethics, and governance
The best companies are already prototyping, even informally. They’re encouraging teams to run small internal experiments or explore low-risk AI tooling. That signals curiosity, pragmatism, and cultural readiness. We flag that as a strength.
On the flip side, if the leadership team sees AI as “not relevant” to their sector or product—yet their competitors are building with it—we’ll highlight that too.
Data & Architecture: Can Your Systems Feed the Machine?
No AI strategy is possible without usable data. So we evaluate whether the company’s existing data estate is fit for purpose.
That includes:
- Is the data clean, structured, and labeled—or is it locked in PDFs and spreadsheets?
- Is there a data platform that allows access and experimentation?
- Are privacy, consent, and data governance controls in place?
We also consider the effort and cost of making the environment AI-capable. In many cases, legacy systems need to be re-platformed, or at least made more modular, before you can run meaningful AI workloads. We flag the gap between aspiration and reality.
Efficency and Value Creation
This is where the upside comes in.
We look at how AI could impact the cost base or tech velocity. In particular:
- Could AI-assisted development (e.g., coding copilots) significantly increase dev productivity?
- Are there repetitive QA or support tasks that could be automated?
- Are teams using any generative tooling today—and is it delivering value?
We’re not looking for moonshots. We’re looking for high-leverage opportunities—places where automation, ML, or generative AI could make an immediate impact, if the firm chose to lean in.
In a buy-side context, this can translate into a stronger thesis around operational leverage. In a vendor DD, it gives confidence that the team isn’t asleep at the wheel.
You Don’t Need to Lead in AI. But You Do Need to Be Ready.
AI doesn’t need to be your product to impact your future.
If your competitors are using it to double their team’s output, reduce onboarding costs, or improve customer insights—and you’re not—you’re losing ground whether you realize it or not.
That’s why we don’t wait to be asked. We check anyway. Because readiness matters, whether you act on it today or 18 months from now.
Want to know how AI-ready your team really is?
Let’s talk. Even if you’re not building with AI today, you’ll want to know what’s under the hood when the time comes. AI Due Diligence can help plan for the future.
