Impact of Artificial Intelligence on M&A
Artificial Intelligence, AI, is making its way into the headlines for pretty much every industry. So, how about our industry, the world of M&A?
Here at TheNonExec, we have integrated AI into various aspects of our work, from analysing buyers through to building reports and proof-testing financial models. We’ve been early adopters from the outset and have seen significant benefit both in terms of efficiency and value add for our clients.
A recent market report from VDR-firm Ideals piqued our interest. The core argument of their recent “AI in M&A 2026” report is that AI is already shifting the economics of M&A work – not by replacing judgment, but by collapsing the time it takes to get to a first view, and by letting leaner teams run more “shots on goal.”
If you take a peek behind the scenes, there’s a quiet arms race under way in dealmaking – not for assets, but for advantage. And the weapon of choice isn’t a new fund structure or a more aggressive leverage package. It’s artificial intelligence: the ability to turn mountains of messy information into something resembling insight, at speed, and (crucially) without adding headcount.
Adoption is real – but trust is the constraint
Ideals surveyed 100+ M&A professionals in 2025. Roughly two-thirds are using AI or automation tools in some form, while about a third say they don’t use any. The most common applications sit exactly where you’d expect the grind to be: document review/summarisation (29%), deal sourcing/origination (28%), and valuation/financial modelling (24%).
And what are M&A advisors getting out of it?
The dominant benefits are efficiency and speed and fast first assessments, with deeper insights/better decision-making. It tells you AI’s early value in M&A is less “genius strategist”, more “ruthlessly competent analyst”, speeding the first pass so humans can spend their scarce hours where it really counts.
But the brakes are equally telling. The biggest limitation identified is the lack of human nuance and judgment, with data quality/availability and security/confidentiality close behind.
That certainly mirrors our experience – we use AI for the ‘heavy-lifting’, but we still have 100% human checks on all critical data.
“AI is powerful, but deal people don’t trust it enough to let go of the wheel.”
A widening transatlantic gap – and why it matters for competitiveness
The report makes a provocative claim: that AI adoption is moving faster in the US than in Europe, and that this could widen competitive gaps in dealmaking. It frames this against a broader divergence in deal activity: Americas transactions totalled $1.26tn over the past nine months, up 26% year to date, while European deals fell 5% and the UK saw a 35% drop.
Now, you can argue about causality, e.g. macro rates, geopolitics, sector mix, domestic pension capital, you name it. But the mechanism Ideals is pointing to is simple and plausible: if US teams are more willing (culturally and regulatory) to push AI into sourcing and diligence, they may move faster from “idea” to “actionable thesis”, and in competitive processes, speed is often the difference between being in the room and reading about the deal later.
The reasons Europe lags will be familiar to any UK advisory firm: GDPR-driven transparency demands, stronger caution around confidentiality, and an institutional instinct to avoid tools that might compromise privileged or deal-sensitive data. Ideals also leans on research that Europe has historically underinvested in technology and that European organisations trail US counterparts meaningfully in AI adoption.
The near-term business consequence for advisers is not abstract: cross-border buyers with more advanced tooling will look more prepared, more decisive, and potentially less expensive to run.
Effectively it’s a gauntlet thrown to the M&A industry. Adopt AI fast or risk being outperformed!
Closing thought
The adoption of AI within the M&A industry is essentially a warning dressed as optimism: AI is improving how deals are sourced, evaluated, and executed, but it doesn’t replace judgment, and it won’t negotiate your SPA! The advantage will go to M&A firms that combine machine speed with deep human experience.
If you are considering a company sale in the next 12 – 18 months, why not call us for a private discussion?
Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, deal sourcing, Financial modelling, Impact, M&A, origination, Valuation
