Datasite’s The New Deal Team Report Finds AI Is Becoming Essential for Modern M&A

According to The New Deal Team, a new global report from Datasite based on a survey of 1,000 senior dealmakers conducted in partnership with FT Longitude, artificial intelligence has rapidly evolved from an experimental technology into a core component of mergers and acquisitions. Drawing on responses from corporate development leaders, private equity professionals, investment bankers, lawyers, and advisors across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, the report finds that AI is increasingly influencing how deals are sourced, evaluated, diligenced, and executed. More importantly, it suggests that firms that fail to adopt AI risk falling behind competitors as the technology becomes embedded throughout the M&A lifecycle.

AI Is No Longer a Competitive Advantage, It Is Becoming a Requirement

Perhaps the most striking finding from the research is how strongly dealmakers now view AI as essential infrastructure rather than optional technology. Nearly two-thirds of respondents believe that relying exclusively on human decision-making in complex deals is no longer defensible. Even more notably, more than seven in ten believe organizations that fail to adopt AI will struggle to remain competitive within five years.

The survey suggests that AI’s role has evolved from simple productivity enhancement to becoming a force multiplier for decision-making. While traditional M&A processes often required teams to spend weeks reviewing documents, building models, researching targets, and conducting diligence, AI is increasingly compressing those timelines into days or even hours.

Dealmakers are already seeing measurable business outcomes. Nearly a quarter reported that AI helped them identify and complete deals that otherwise would have been missed, while two-thirds believe AI plays a crucial role in reducing transaction risk. More than four in ten respondents even said AI is already making better decisions than humans in certain situations.

Due Diligence Has Emerged as AI’s Biggest Opportunity

While AI is being deployed across virtually every stage of the deal lifecycle, its strongest impact today is occurring during due diligence.

Half of all respondents reported regularly using AI during due diligence, making it the most heavily adopted phase of the transaction process. Only a small minority said they do not use AI at all during diligence activities.

This concentration makes intuitive sense. Due diligence often involves reviewing thousands of documents, contracts, financial records, compliance reports, and operational materials. AI excels at processing large volumes of information, identifying inconsistencies, extracting data points, and surfacing potential risks that might otherwise remain buried within extensive documentation.

According to the survey, due diligence also delivers the highest perceived return on investment among all M&A stages. Respondents ranked it ahead of sourcing, screening, deal preparation, marketing, and governance functions when evaluating where AI creates the greatest value.

Looking toward 2030, dealmakers expect AI’s greatest benefit in diligence to be improved risk identification and mitigation, reinforcing the view that the technology’s long-term value extends far beyond simple efficiency gains.

AI Is Reshaping Every Stage of the Deal Lifecycle

The report reveals that AI adoption extends well beyond diligence.

Nearly every respondent is already using or exploring AI for sourcing and screening acquisition targets. Similar adoption levels were reported for strategy development, opportunity identification, and deal preparation activities.

In sourcing and screening, AI is helping organizations evaluate larger volumes of opportunities while identifying risks earlier in the process. Respondents indicated that the technology improves visibility into potential issues before deals advance to more resource-intensive stages.

For deal marketing, AI is helping firms respond to buyer and seller questions more efficiently and at greater scale. During deal preparation, many respondents reported improvements in overall decision quality, suggesting that AI is influencing not just speed but also strategic outcomes.

However, adoption declines significantly as deals approach the finish line. Nearly one-third of respondents do not use AI during closing activities, while more than a quarter avoid using it in board reporting and governance. These findings suggest that while AI is increasingly trusted for analysis and preparation, humans remain firmly in control of final decisions and relationship-driven interactions.

Asia-Pacific Is Leading Adoption

Regional differences emerged throughout the study.

Dealmakers in Asia-Pacific reported the highest levels of AI adoption across most transaction stages, particularly sourcing, screening, and due diligence. The region also demonstrated greater willingness to allow AI to play a leading role in identifying targets and highlighting potential diligence concerns.

Meanwhile, respondents in the Americas expressed the strongest belief that firms ignoring AI will struggle competitively over the next five years. European dealmakers tended to take a more cautious approach in some areas, potentially reflecting the region’s regulatory environment and governance requirements.

Despite these differences, the overall direction remains remarkably consistent. Across regions, dealmakers increasingly view AI as a necessary component of modern transaction execution.

Advisors Are Moving Faster Than Corporate Buyers

The survey also identified meaningful differences between advisors and clients.

Investment banks, law firms, accounting firms, and consulting organizations consistently reported higher levels of AI adoption than corporate acquirers and private equity buyers. The largest gap appeared in due diligence, where advisors demonstrated significantly stronger usage rates.

This trend likely reflects the nature of advisory work. Advisors frequently manage multiple transactions simultaneously and therefore stand to benefit disproportionately from technologies that improve scalability, document review efficiency, and pattern recognition.

Advisors also appear more willing to allow AI to influence major decisions, particularly in identifying diligence risks and evaluating potential acquisition targets.

The Human Role Is Shifting Rather Than Disappearing

Despite growing AI adoption, the report repeatedly emphasizes that human dealmakers remain central to the transaction process.

Nearly half of respondents believe the final decision to sign a deal should remain entirely human. Only a very small minority support fully autonomous AI decision-making without human oversight.

The study found that dealmakers continue to value uniquely human capabilities that are difficult for AI to replicate. Respondents identified negotiation and relationship management as the most challenging skills for AI to reproduce, followed by strategic judgment, decision-making under uncertainty, assessing trust and credibility, and interpreting nuanced contextual risks.

Interview participants highlighted several examples where human intuition remains critical. Understanding a founder’s motivations, recognizing subtle interpersonal dynamics, evaluating leadership qualities, and making judgment calls when data is incomplete all remain areas where experienced professionals believe humans maintain a meaningful advantage.

Rather than replacing dealmakers, AI appears to be changing what dealmakers spend their time doing. Routine analysis, document review, and information gathering are increasingly automated, allowing professionals to focus on negotiation, relationship building, strategic thinking, and high-consequence decisions.

Accuracy and Trust Have Become Strategic Priorities

As AI becomes embedded into increasingly consequential business processes, trust is emerging as a critical challenge.

When asked which attributes matter most when using AI, dealmakers ranked accuracy first, narrowly ahead of security. Reliability, speed, and compliance followed closely behind.

Organizations are responding by implementing safeguards. Human review and validation of AI-generated outputs emerged as the most common trust-building measure. Other approaches include using purpose-built AI systems, restricting AI to secure environments, validating outputs against known outcomes, establishing accountability frameworks, and implementing formal governance processes.

Notably, nearly a quarter of respondents warned that poor AI usage could destroy multiple high-value deals over the next five years. The concern is no longer whether firms should adopt AI, but whether they can deploy it responsibly and effectively.

Human Judgment Remains the Last Mile

One of the strongest themes throughout the report is that AI’s greatest contribution may be freeing dealmakers to focus on the parts of transactions that machines struggle to replicate.

Industry leaders interviewed for the study repeatedly pointed to emotional intelligence, trust-building, contextual understanding, and relationship management as areas where humans continue to hold a decisive advantage. AI may be able to summarize information and identify patterns, but it cannot fully understand why a founder is emotionally attached to a business, how a management team responds under pressure, or whether cultural alignment exists between two organizations.

These factors often determine whether a deal succeeds after the paperwork is signed. As a result, many dealmakers believe the future role of M&A professionals will become increasingly centered on judgment, negotiation, leadership assessment, and decision-making under uncertainty.

The Rise of the Hybrid Deal Team

The central conclusion of Datasite’s The New Deal Team report is that the future of M&A will belong neither to AI nor to humans alone, but to organizations that successfully combine both. As AI continues to absorb the analytical and process-heavy aspects of dealmaking, human expertise becomes increasingly concentrated around trust, negotiation, judgment, leadership assessment, and accountability. The report suggests that AI adoption is quickly becoming a baseline expectation across the industry, but long-term success will depend on how effectively firms integrate AI into their workflows while preserving the uniquely human capabilities that continue to determine whether deals ultimately succeed or fail.