On our last M&A Worldwide Convention, held on the last 20th May digitally, we organized Breakout Rooms and invited the participants to discuss among them the future of the
M&A activity with the usage of AI - Artificial Intelligence. This was the result obtained, organized by working groups:
Group 1 - Moderator: Cyril Schlup
Artificial Intelligence M&A Worldwide Usage
M&A is a people-driven business, but AI could allow us to make more deals per person. Artificial Intelligence can make our jobs easier by giving us faster and better data analysis while also being more relevant.
Areas where AI will become increasingly more important:
- Legal due diligence – Using standard contracts
- Financial analysis
- Improve searches of buyers/sellers
- Data rooms
Ideas for increasing cooperation between M&A Worldwide Partners:
Automate Orbit to send invitations to the industry groups. Increase the amount of information in the library on Orbit.
Establish set standards so that there is coherence in the documentation available.
Group 2 - Moderator: Fabio Matsui
AI working tools
Artificial Intelligence could enhance analytics giving us the correct and complete data to facilitate our work. We could look at enhancing our LinkedIn usage among partners if we could have a tool to provide data and access to contacts, etc allowing us to do more business together.
Share information suppliers of AI, there are lots of tools, these tools can facilitate in the identification of potential buyers, better targets etc. An example of these tools is
Datahub which provides and integrates data.
We need to decide in which categories it can be used, focus on specific categories where ai can be useful such as due diligence and target identification.
Artificial Intelligence and analytics are also disruptive, it is very good to have this discussion, but it should be further analysed and used as a way to leverage our businesses to make cooperation more effective. A possible suggestion is an Industry group to discuss AI and big data and how we can best use it to M&A Worldwide advantage.
Group 3 - Moderator: Jérôme Luis
Partnerships on CRM Platforms
Most of our group are not using AI or automation tools. The types of tools that could be useful are tools that could help with searches of buyers or sellers. We currently aren’t able to identify any presently.
- There is a lack of information CRM tools that also integrate AI. We have 2 members who are using them, Hubspot is an example of a CRM being used. It would be useful to identify 2 or 3 others and share the information with our partners.
- Platforms that give access to deals, buyers and sellers. Platforms such as Dealsuite, have good lists of buyers and sellers. Some members are using these tools, it would be a good idea to try and get free trials and possible group discounts.
- Valuation part. Tools such as Valutico automates the valuation process. Valutico is a web-based valuations platform providing the financial services industry and valuation practitioners with data-driven tools to conduct analysis more efficiently. Organising a presentation or a webinar and a possible free trial could be of use.
Group 4 - Moderator: Kaine Smith
A short term Vision
The group decided to focus on the short term, for the next 6 months.
The group think that cooperation and Artificial Intelligence are one and the same, they can help drive efficiency and cooperation. It is important that we don’t run before walk. We should focus on our own human intelligence first and then investigate AI solutions.
Orbit should be used more, there is a wealth of information regarding done deals and top-down stats, etc.
It is a very powerful tool and contains all the information and knowledge that we have, we are all experts in our own fields, we all know the PE in our individual markets, we know the marketplace, we know the multiples. We need to find a better way to use all this information within M&A Worldwide.
Orbit needs to keep evolving to further enhance cooperation.
We see the Industry Groups as a clear foundation for cooperation, we should ensure that the Industry Groups are better documented on Orbit. The IG provide a place where we trust the people we work with already and cooperation then becomes seamless.
To conclude, all the groups touched on the same point, which is that AI has to be researched more so that we can understand how beneficial it could be in our M&A activity. There are lots of different solutions available so we need to focus on which AI tools or CRM’s that could be most advantageous.
Another point was that we need to use Orbit to its full potential, we already have this powerful resource but are not using it in the best and most productive way.
