How Are You Approaching AI Diligence?

February 20, 2026

by a professional from Indiana University at Bloomington in Nashville, TN, USA

I’ve seen a lot of discussion here about using AI to support the diligence process. I’ve seen less discussion about AI diligence as a standalone focus area within due diligence itself. I’m curious whether anyone has explicitly carved this out as its own diligence stream, or made it a meaningful part of tech diligence in a deal. For context, I’m thinking about evaluating things such as a company’s AI strategy and roadmap, current AI-enabled tools or workflows, data readiness and governance, and the depth of AI-related skills across the team. Would love to hear how others have approached this, and whether it has influenced valuation, integration plans, or post-close priorities.

Reply by a searcher
from Dartmouth College in Albany, NY, USA

This is putting the cart way before the horse on most search-scale businesses. On the lower end you could be talking about operators who run scheduling in excel and can't read a balance sheet. Based on the targets I've diligenced, building a golden source should be at the bottom of any new owner's priorities for a long, long time.

Reply by a professional
from Duke University in New York, NY, USA

I think without even getting into AI, one thing to absolutely look into is the company's tech stack and willingness to adopt new tech. Has management tried leveraging tech in the past and was it adopted meaningfully? That should be a good proxy for how well AI would be adopted as well. To your point, there's a lot of businesses out there where data is still scattered & systems aren't meaningfully systemized in a way where AI provides the value that it's capable of doing (and in these cases, likely is a distraction). I'd imagine businesses that have their roadmap & data together would be a bit more valuation rich. Separate point that could be it's own thing, but food for thought is what is "AI-able" in the business -- e.g. professional white collar services have a lot more room for automation than boots on the ground services.

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