AI for Private Equity

Industry Overview #

The PE landscape has fundamentally shifted. Fund managers are competing for a shrinking pool of quality deals while facing pressure from LPs to deploy capital efficiently and generate returns in compressed timeframes. The firms gaining an edge aren't necessarily the ones with the most sophisticated financial models—they're the ones whose people can move faster, see deeper, and create more value across every stage of the investment lifecycle.

AI offers tools for each of these challenges. But the tools are only as good as the people using them.

Many PE firms we speak with have already experimented with AI in some capacity. Deal teams are using ChatGPT for market research. Associates are drafting investment memos with AI assistance. Portfolio company CEOs are asking about AI strategy. But these scattered experiments rarely translate into systematic competitive advantage. Without a structured approach—governance, training, and workflow integration—AI adoption remains fragmented and its potential unrealized.

The firms seeing measurable results aren't just buying software or subscribing to new platforms. They're building capabilities. They're training their teams to use AI effectively across the deal cycle, creating workflows that augment human judgment rather than replace it, and developing a culture of continuous learning and experimentation that compounds over time.

Private equity's competitive advantage has always been information asymmetry and operational expertise. AI amplifies both—but only when your people have the fluency to wield these tools with precision. A deal team that can synthesize market intelligence in hours instead of days, conduct deeper competitive analysis, and identify value creation opportunities faster than the competition isn't just more efficient. They're more likely to win deals and create value.

The challenge isn't finding AI tools. The technology is maturing rapidly and becoming more accessible by the month. The challenge is building the organizational capability to use these tools effectively, responsibly, and consistently. That's where we come in.

AI Challenges & Opportunities in Private Equity #

Deal Sourcing & Screening. The best deals are often the ones you find before everyone else. AI can help surface opportunities through pattern recognition, market signal monitoring, and automated screening—but only with the right setup and the right prompts. We help you build AI-augmented deal sourcing workflows that actually save time without missing opportunities. This includes training your teams on effective research techniques, implementing tools that integrate with your existing deal flow systems, and establishing processes that ensure AI outputs are validated by human judgment.

Due Diligence Acceleration. Market research, competitive analysis, financial modeling, customer sentiment analysis—AI can accelerate all of these. We help your deal teams use AI tools effectively while maintaining the rigor your LPs expect. The goal isn't to replace due diligence with AI-generated summaries; it's to give your analysts more time for the high-value thinking that actually differentiates your investment thesis. Teams we've trained report 20-40% time savings on research-intensive tasks, freeing capacity for deeper analysis and more deals.

Portfolio Value Creation. Here's where the real opportunity compounds. Every portfolio company represents a chance to deploy AI-driven improvements—operational efficiencies, go-to-market acceleration, customer experience enhancements. We help you build AI capabilities across portfolio companies, creating value that accumulates over the hold period. Whether it's training portfolio company leadership on practical AI applications or implementing workflow automation that drives EBITDA improvement, we help you create measurable impact.

Competitive Intelligence. Markets move fast, and staying ahead requires constant monitoring. AI-powered tools can track competitor moves, market trends, regulatory changes, and customer sentiment—but only if your teams know how to configure them properly and interpret the outputs critically. We help you turn information overload into actionable intelligence, with systems that surface what matters and filter what doesn't.

Investment Team Productivity. Beyond deal-specific applications, AI can fundamentally improve how your team operates day-to-day. Meeting summaries and follow-up automation. CRM updates and LP communication drafts. Portfolio reporting and performance analysis. These are the mundane tasks that consume senior time—and AI can reclaim that time for higher-value work.

Our Approach #

We meet PE firms where they are in their AI journey. Some funds are just getting started, exploring what's possible and establishing governance. Others have been experimenting for months and need help scaling what's working. Our engagements adapt to your context while following a proven framework.

At the fund level, we focus on building systematic AI capabilities across your investment and operations teams:

Governance and Standardization. Before you can scale AI adoption, you need clarity on which tools are approved, how sensitive information should be handled, and what responsible use looks like. We help you establish AI policies that enable experimentation while managing risk—practical guardrails that your teams will actually follow.

Training and Enablement. Most professionals won't progress beyond basic AI use—drafting emails, simple summarization—without structured training. We deliver role-specific programs that build genuine fluency: deal team training on research acceleration and memo drafting, operations training on portfolio monitoring and reporting, and executive sessions that help leadership understand the strategic implications. Our approach emphasizes hands-on practice with your actual workflows, not theoretical concepts.

Workflow Integration. Once your teams have foundational fluency, we help identify and implement high-impact workflows. This might include automated deal screening pipelines, AI-augmented due diligence checklists, or portfolio company reporting dashboards. We focus on integrations that work with your existing systems—your CRM, your data room platform, your communication tools—rather than introducing entirely new technology stacks.

At portfolio companies, we assess AI opportunities, build implementation roadmaps, and train teams—creating measurable value that contributes to returns:

Opportunity Assessment. We work with portfolio company leadership to identify where AI can drive the most impact given their specific industry, competitive position, and operational maturity. This isn't a generic checklist—it's a tailored analysis that considers their unique context.

Implementation Support. For high-priority initiatives, we provide hands-on implementation support—configuring tools, building workflows, and training teams to sustain the improvements independently.

Capability Building. Our goal is always to leave the portfolio company more capable than we found them. We train internal champions, document best practices, and create the foundation for continued AI maturation long after our engagement ends.

Our engagements typically start with a focused assessment to identify the highest-impact opportunities, followed by hands-on training and implementation support tailored to your specific workflows and investment thesis. We're not here to sell you software or create dependency on outside consultants. We're here to build capabilities that compound—so your teams can catch bigger fish on their own.