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Carolyn:

AI has moved from experimental to being fully integrated into most stages of the deal process according to recent SS&C Intralinks research, Todd Partridge is here to tell us more about the findings. Todd, give us a high-level overview of what the findings of Intralinks research show and say about where AI is in dealmaking today.

Todd:

Yeah. You know, I think first, thanks for having me here. The findings were really interesting. If I could sum them up in kind of one sentence, it's that the pace of AI innovation and adoption continues to be a bit breathtaking. When we think back just 5 or 6 years, when we started to build our new platform, we wanted to do so with AI at the, at the heart of it. And at that time, customers were really using AI to do things like AI redaction of documents and translations, document summarization, which today can kind of be determined as table stakes, if you will. You know, when we fast forward, we wanted to get a real take from customers on the street of how are they actually using AI today. Not just talking about it, everybody talks about it, but how is it being put to use and what we found really surprised as a bit in that over just under 50% of all deal makers are actually using AI across the entire deal life cycle. So, you know, we talk to these 400 deal makers from bankers and corporate development professionals, private equity and lawyers and really saw that adoption and had really picked up. And why were they doing it? Because 30% of them are seeing real material and meaningful time savings across the deal lifecycle for them.

Carolyn:

One of the findings from the research that I think is particularly interesting has to do with resistance to AI adoption. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Todd:

Absolutely. Yeah, it was very telling for us as well. You know, what we found was that while AI is really growing quickly and being adopted like that, there's definitely a split in demographics. For example, when we talk to and asked analysts, how much, how often they were using AI. Were they using it, you know, regularly some of the time or not at all? We found that, you know, nearly 70% of analysts were using it all of the time. You contrast that with that same question to MDs and partners, and we found 2% of people were using it. And that really shows the dichotomy of where people are at. You know, what some of the underlying data we found in there was that these firms are actually using between 3 and 5 different AI tools across the lifecycle. And nearly 80% of them had actually experienced some security or inaccuracy outcomes in using that AI. So I think that's where that discrepancy comes from. You know, the younger generation who's there, they're looking to get their job done quickly. And, you know, more senior leadership is a bit more conservative about the approach that they want to take.

Carolyn:

I mean, that makes sense. So it's interesting because as adoption increases, dealmakers get to capture those upsides, the pros, the benefits of AI. At the same time as adoption increases, they're seeing those cons, the risks, as you say.

Todd:

Absolutely.

Carolyn:

Do you have any tips about how dealmakers can capture the upsides to AI while mitigating those risks and minimizing those downsides?

Todd:

Yeah, I think what I'd say to most people, and most of the conversations I have with customers, is that I think there's little doubt today that the pros outweigh the cons, right? Nobody should, in today's age, be fearful of using AI. I think it's important for everybody who is approaching this to have a strategy and a plan ahead of time. Make sure that your firm and your approach to it has some good rules of governance in place. And again, our research showed that that seems to be already happening, that people have that governance in place. But then I think the last bit of this is really about the security of your data. You know, today what's happening, as I said, people using all of these different AI tools, they tend to be kind of nonchalantly moving data around, taking it out of data rooms, moving it over to Claude or ChatGPT and then moving it back. And so I think going forward, what people are looking for is how can I use these AI tools and keep my data safe and make sure you've put those safeguards in there. And, you know, people are using deal making platforms for a reason. And don't forget that in light of using an AI tool.

Carolyn:

Fascinating findings. Thank you so much, Todd, for being with us.

Todd:

Thank you.