I recently had lunch today with a prominent M&A figure from New York. We work in the same field and have the same opinion:
M&A is about relationships.
Long-term relationships matter. These projects are complex, expensive, and often go sideways in ways no spreadsheet can forecast. The human sensitivity required to manage that — to build trust when things derail or fall off a cliff entirely — is immense. Without trust, without connection, M&A turns into a game of contractual warfare. And no one wins there.
Then — as if on cue — our conversation swerved into AI.
Every conference. Every boardroom. Every conversation. It’s everywhere.
And in our world of M&A, AI is supposedly “coming for us” too.
He mentioned there’s a lot of noise out there. Much of what’s being sold as “AI” right now is basically rebranded search. Smart tagging. Automated templates. Handy? Sure. Revolutionary? Hardly.
He believed many of us in MA& are now experiencing “AI Fatigue” – investors, consultants, etc are exhausted not by the potential of AI, but by the smoke and mirrors — the over-promises, the rehashes, the pitch decks that say “transformational” when they mean “marginally helpful.”
But here’s what struck me.
In one breath, we were talking about how M&A relies on human relationships — deep ones.
Trust.
Dialogue.
Nuance.
In the next, we were talking about a technology that, in many ways, is designed to reduce the need for all of that.
AI is built to remove friction, automate judgement, speed things up.
One demands more human connection.
The other threatens to replace it.
I’m not anti-AI. Far from it. I think it will eventually become a core part of our toolkit, but it will also become commonplace. Once we get to that stage then the focus may shift on the wonders of AI and back to people and business.
But right now, it feels like we’re being distracted. We’re being told to stare at the shiny new thing while forgetting the substance of what makes M&A work: people, relationships, trust, patience, clear-eyed negotiation.
Nobody’s tweeting about those things.
No one’s doing a keynote on “the importance of emotional intelligence in integration strategy.”
But that’s where the real value lies.
Always has been.
No punchline here. Just an observation.
Answers on a postcard, please.
