Transcript: AI-enabled execution - Simon Bradford and Jenny Cheshire

Transcript

Simon Bradford:
AI isn't replacing dealmakers. It's changing what good dealmakers spend their time doing.

AI can now help teams interrogate huge volumes of financial data, contracts and other information at a speed and scale that simply wasn't possible before.

But the real opportunity isn't just doing diligence faster. It's going deeper — identifying issues earlier, testing more hypotheses and giving deal teams more time to focus on what really matters.

Jenny Cheshire:
Exactly. Because finding something and knowing whether it matters are two very different things.AI might identify an anomaly in the data or an unusual clause in a contract. But understanding whether that challenges the investment thesis, changes your view on value or affects how you negotiate the deal requires context, experience and judgement.

Simon:
And in today's market, that really matters.

Buyers increasingly need to build conviction quickly. So the advantage isn't simply using AI to automate what we already do. It's using it to ask better questions, investigate more deeply and challenge the investment case earlier.

And increasingly, that means looking not just at the business you're buying today, but at how AI itself could reshape that business in the future.

Jenny:
Which is why AI doesn't reduce the importance of experience — it amplifies it.

The strongest deal teams will combine AI-enabled analysis with deep sector expertise, commercial experience and informed judgement.

Simon:
AI changes the pace but judgement determines the outcome.