Brief Overview

  • Companies are increasingly turning to generative AI to support M&A activity, particularly in the early stages of the deal process, according to a report released Tuesday by Accenture.
  • The survey found that the share of companies investing in generative AI for pre-deal M&A activities rose from 31% in 2024 to 46% in 2026, reflecting a growing willingness to use the technology to streamline research and analysis before a deal closes. Post-deal adoption also increased, though at a slower pace, rising from 18% to 27% over the same period.
  • "Companies are using AI in market research, due diligence, and financial modeling, but post-deal value realization is different—it requires coordinated execution across systems, is less structured, and is often harder to scale," Rachel Barton, global head of private equity at Accenture, said in an email.

Deeper Insights

Just a few years after ChatGPT's debut, generative AI has profoundly reshaped how M&A deals are conducted. A report released last month by McKinsey showed that generative AI can shorten deal timelines by 10% to 30% and cut costs by about 20%.

"AI can help dealmakers identify and seize opportunities in areas such as geopolitical restructuring, supply chain shifts, and regulatory changes," McKinsey researchers said.

Accenture surveyed 650 senior dealmakers across 12 industries and 24 countries (the survey was conducted in January), and found that over the past three years, most dealmakers have focused on using generative AI to boost efficiency, especially in pre-deal activities like market research and due diligence. "These areas benefit from faster information synthesis, pattern recognition, and scenario analysis, where generative AI's capabilities complement human judgment," the report said.

Meanwhile, the research also found that agentic AI is rapidly becoming "a powerful enabler of more connected, insight-driven M&A."

"The benefits are clear: companies that scale agentic AI and embed it into value levers expect 1.7 times higher profit margins," Barton said.

The McKinsey report noted that in integration planning and execution, agentic AI will handle more than 50% of tasks.

However, Alex Jones, a partner at law firm Kohrman Jackson & Krantz LLP, pointed out that deploying AI in M&A processes also carries risks. In a March 12 article, he said: "In a typical M&A deal, sellers share highly sensitive information under non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), including trade secrets, financial statements and forecasts, customer and supplier contracts, proprietary technical information, and employee information." He further noted: "Using AI in due diligence therefore raises a fundamental question: does uploading confidential information to AI tools violate the NDA?" The article also mentioned that some sellers now include clauses in NDAs that prohibit uploading confidential information to public or open-source AI platforms, restrict the use of AI tools that may retain data or use inputs for model training, and require written consent before using AI for due diligence.