AI Strategy Due Diligence
An independent assessment of a target's AI strategy and capability — for PE diligence, M&A, or board-level review of an existing roadmap. The third-party read that surfaces what management decks polish over.
PRICE
€4,900
DELIVERY
15 days
FORMAT
Partner-led
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§ 01 · The problem
"Management says AI is core. The DD deck has one slide on it. The valuation prices three."
AI has become a value driver in deal valuations — and a value risk that traditional diligence misses. Commercial DD reads marketing materials. Tech DD audits the codebase. Neither tells you whether the AI roadmap is real, defensible, and worth what's being priced in. The board sees a confident deck; the auditor sees nothing in particular; the AI strategy ships its first breakage 9 months after closing.
The AI Strategy Due Diligence delivers the independent read your transaction needs. Capability maturity, talent depth, data infrastructure, vendor concentration, competitive defensibility, EU AI Act exposure, valuation impact. The report that earns its place in the deal data room — and the one that protects against the AI risk traditional DD doesn't surface.
§ 02 · What you get
A deal-grade diligence report. Independent. Defensible.
Six deliverables structured the way investment committees read DD reports. Built to be relied upon in negotiation — not just discussed in passing.
DELIVERABLE 01
Executive summary & verdict
3-page exec summary with explicit verdict: green / amber / red on each diligence dimension. Calibrated to your deal thesis. The first slide investment committee reads — and often the only one.
DELIVERABLE 02
Capability & maturity assessment
Target's AI capabilities benchmarked against sector standards: deployed systems, talent depth, data assets, MLOps maturity, governance posture. What's real vs management narrative.
DELIVERABLE 03
Competitive & defensibility analysis
How does the target's AI position hold against direct competitors and adjacent threats? Where's the moat — and where's it eroding? The strategic read your commercial DD didn't deliver.
DELIVERABLE 04
Risk register
15-20 AI-specific risks with likelihood, impact, and post-close remediation cost. EU AI Act exposure, vendor concentration, talent retention, IP integrity, model drift. The risks that don't appear in QofE — but should price in.
DELIVERABLE 05
Valuation impact & deal terms
Quantified upside and downside on the AI roadmap, value creation potential vs price reduction levers, suggested representations & warranties, earn-out structures, post-close integration priorities.
DELIVERABLE 06
100-day post-close plan
If you close, what happens in the first 100 days on AI: priority interventions, talent retention actions, governance install, capability gaps to remediate. The plan that turns DD findings into Day 1 execution.
§ 03 · The method
Five diligence lenses. One independent verdict.
Traditional DD tests financial, commercial, legal, technical. AI strategy requires five additional lenses — and we apply them with the same forensic discipline you expect from senior diligence work.
LENS 01
Capability vs claim
What the target says it has vs what it actually ships. Management interviews, code review when granted, customer references, public artefacts. The delta between deck and reality is often the verdict.
LENS 02
Defensibility & moat
Data exclusivity, talent depth, distribution lock-in, model fine-tuning IP. Is the AI position a real moat or a six-month head start? The competitive question that determines value creation potential.
LENS 03
Talent & key-person risk
Who actually runs the AI stack? Are they on stay-and-go vesting? What happens when the head of AI walks 6 months post-close? The risk that pre-DD diligence rarely surfaces — and that closes deals at the wrong price.
LENS 04
Regulatory & vendor exposure
EU AI Act classification of the deployed systems, remediation cost, timeline. Vendor concentration risk (e.g. single-LLM dependency, single-cloud lock-in). The exposure that doesn't price into LBO models — but should.
LENS 05
Value creation vs value at risk
Quantified upside if the AI roadmap delivers vs quantified downside if it doesn't. Translated into EV impact, suggested R&W coverage, earn-out structures. The lens that turns DD findings into deal terms.
§ 04 · Process & timeline
Fifteen days. Calibrated to your deal calendar.
Partner-led from sourcing call to final report. Designed to slot into a typical M&A timeline between commercial DD and SPA negotiation.
DAYS 01–02
Deal thesis framing
90-min session with the deal team: investment thesis, AI hypothesis, value creation logic, key open questions. We calibrate the diligence to your specific deal — not generic AI maturity.
DAYS 03–07
Data room & interviews
Data room review (technical docs, AI policies, vendor contracts, talent roster). 4-6 management interviews (CTO, Head of AI, Head of Data, key engineers). Customer references where granted.
DAYS 08–10
Competitive scan & benchmarking
Sector benchmarking against 5-8 direct and adjacent competitors. Defensibility assessment. Risk register populated. Preliminary findings shared with deal team for course-correction.
DAYS 11–13
Valuation & deal terms
Quantified EV impact. R&W, earn-out, escrow recommendations. 100-day post-close plan structured. Working draft circulated for deal team review.
DAYS 14–15
Final report & readout
Final 40-50 page DD report delivered. 90-min readout to deal team and investment committee. Q&A and recommendation defended live. Report ready for the deal data room.
§ 05 · Who it's for
For deal teams pricing AI into the valuation.
Built for four roles where AI strategy is becoming material to deal value — and where traditional diligence stops short.
PE DEAL PARTNER
The target's management has positioned AI as a core value driver. You need an independent verdict before you commit IC and price the AI optionality. Specialist DD that holds in negotiation — and in the data room post-close.
PE OPERATING PARTNER
You're sponsor-side on a deal where AI is a value lever. You want a 100-day post-close plan built into DD — not assembled in the first board meeting. Diligence that bridges to Day 1 execution.
CORPORATE M&A LEAD
You're acquiring a smaller player partly for their AI capability. You need to test the claim, surface the talent and IP risks, and structure deal terms (earn-out, retention) accordingly. Independent rigor where internal teams would be conflicted.
BOARD CHAIR / NED
You're being asked to approve a sizeable AI investment program. You want an independent read on the strategy before sign-off — separate from management's own narrative. The board-grade challenge that earns its own line on the agenda.
§ 06 · Frequently asked
Six honest answers to common questions.
What level of target cooperation do you need?
Full DD requires management interviews, data room access, and 4-6 hours of CTO/Head of AI time. We can run a "blind" version on public materials only — useful for pre-LOI screening — but the depth and defensibility drop materially. We're transparent about which mode you're getting.
Are you "buy-side" only, or also sell-side?
Both — but never on the same deal. Buy-side: we work for the acquirer, evaluating the target. Sell-side: we work for sellers (or their advisors) to surface and remediate AI weaknesses before going to market. Cleaner deals, better outcomes. We flag the conflict if both sides approach us on the same transaction.
Is 15 days compatible with a fast deal calendar?
Yes — we can compress to 10 days with a rush surcharge and target cooperation. Faster than that, the report loses defensibility — and a DD report that doesn't defend isn't worth signing. We'll tell you honestly if the calendar makes the engagement counter-productive.
How do you handle confidentiality?
NDA before any deal-specific conversation. Reports delivered through your data room, never our infrastructure. We track which transactions we've worked on and decline conflicts. Specialist DD only works with absolute confidentiality discipline — we treat it that way.
Do you work alongside Big 4 or strategy DD firms?
Frequently. We complement commercial DD (Bain, BCG, OC&C, EY-Parthenon, Roland Berger) with AI-specific depth they don't carry in-house. Our report dovetails with their commercial work and feeds the same investment committee package. We coordinate explicitly to avoid duplication.
If we close, can you deliver the Value Creation Plan (Skill 09) afterwards?
Yes — and that's the most common follow-on. The 100-day post-close plan in this DD is the bridge to a full Value Creation Plan, which is Skill 09 (€4,900). Sequential engagement, separately scoped. We maintain independence on the DD verdict by separating these clearly.
§ Ready when you are
Price the AI risk before the deal does it for you.
€4,900, fifteen days, partner-led. The deal-grade AI diligence that holds in negotiation, in committee, and on Day 1 post-close.
REQUEST AN NDA
SEE SAMPLE DD REPORT →