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    AI in M&A

    How Artificial Intelligence will impact Due Diligence

    By Hutton Henry · 3 March 2023 · 2 min read

    Introduction

    Due diligence (DD) is an important part of any investment. It helps investors determine whether or not a company is worth investing in and, if so, how much money should be invested.

    But it's also one of the most time-consuming parts of venture capital (VC) deals, with lawyers spending weeks poring over legal documents and financial statements to ensure there are no hidden liabilities or other issues that could affect the value of their portfolio companies.

    AI can help with DD by automating the process.

    • AI can help with DD by helping to find relevant information.
    • It can help identify the critical legal documents and financial statements that need to be reviewed and then analyze them for potential issues. It also understands language better than humans, meaning it can find information in different forms (e.g., Word docs versus PDFs).

    AI can help with DD by helping to find patterns in the data.

    • It can help surface any potential red flags in the data. This can be especially useful for startups still in their early stages, as it may be difficult to get a complete picture of all the data they need from their financial statements.AI can help with DD by providing insights and recommendations. It can identify areas where issues or risks might affect the startup’s value (e.g., how much debt they have on its balance sheet). AI can also provide recommendations based on other investors' actions in similar situations.
    • AI can help with DD by helping to analyze the data. AI can analyze huge amounts of data, which helps to identify potential red flags in the data. This can be especially useful for startups still in their early stages, as it may be difficult to get a complete picture of all the data they need from their financial statements.
    • AI can help with DD by providing insights and recommendations. It can identify areas where issues or risks might affect the startup’s value (e.g., how much debt they have on its balance sheet). AI can also provide recommendations based on other investors' actions in similar situations.

    Artificial Intelligence will help solve the talent shortage for DD and make it better.

    AI will help solve the talent shortage for DD and make it better. Performing Due Diligence has been around since humans have bought and sold things.

    But it has remained largely untouched by technology until recently. As a result, there is still a high degree of human involvement in many parts of the DD process, leading to long turnaround times and bloated costs. By applying AI to your DD program, you can automate much of this manual work to improve quality and speed up your entire process significantly.

    Conclusion

    The above use case highlights how AI will enable greater due diligence and make it more efficient. We can’t wait to see what the future holds!

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