AI in the search process
Through the search process AI provides efficiency savings and competitive advantage. New tools are emerging all the time and those who adopt quickly will reap the rewards.
For a good overview of the typical transaction process I go to two resources:
Selling Your Business', a quick reference guide written by UK business broker Ken Gorman; and the HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business by US experts Rick Ruback and Royce Yudkoff.
Here's how I'm thinking about tech-enabled search, as at May 2025. I fully expect this to evolve over the coming months as technology improves and as I streamline my own search.
The Search tech stack
Below is my process laid out process by process and platform by platform.
Industry research
Broad-ranging activity including Google searches, going to relevant industry events, following up interesting acquisition precedents and - importantly - responding to opportunities through my network
Database
Here target companies are identified and either screened out (based on current ownership structure, financials, fit with thesis) or marked for further analysis
CRM
All prospects get funnelled into a database of prospect companies where key information is added (Companies House records, website, key ownership information, financials if known)
To enable outreach, key contact details are added
Prospects are marked as a 'Deal' then activity if tracked (including email communications)
Outreach
For proprietary deals, business owners are contacted by email, letter or phone call with an introductory message
For brokered deals, communication continues through the broker (or corporate finance adviser, accountant or other intermediary)
Communication is followed up periodically until contact is made
Analysis
When mutual interest in a transaction is identified detailed financial analysis can begin, under NDA.
Here the focus is on both financing the transaction and forecasting investor returns.
Analysis of other business risks and growth opportunities is also carried out
Professionals are engaged for financial, accounting and legal DD
Transaction
Financing is secured from equity investors and lenders
Legal advisers draw up the Sale & Purchase Agreement and support closing activities
AI applied across the tech stack
In 2025 AI tools are still evolving rapidly. Whereas the excitement of the last couple of years has been around Large Language Models (LLMs) for broad research, AI is now beginning to be targeted towards use cases with tangible (rather than curiosity) value.
Across the search tech stack, AI is currently most useful for research tasks and data processing tasks. My own search process relies heavily on general AI tools including ChatGPT and Perplexity but also makes use of AI integrated into my database platform and my CRM platform.
There are untapped opportunities lower down, in particular:
Detailed financial analysis of a target company
Accounting and legal due diligence
Contract generation and review
