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AI and M&A Advisory

AI in M&A: Highlights from the first Deal Prompt podcast with Ralf Pilarczyk

We kicked off our new Deal Prompt Podcast with R.A.L.F. Pilarczyk, Head of M&A, Southeast Asia at Standard Chartered—one of the few senior bankers who keeps a public GitHub, codes in VS Code and Cursor, and builds his own tools. We met on a live deal, discovered our shared AI obsession mid‑process, and he’s now both a friend and an advisor.

TLDR

“I’m fully financed. My documents are ready, I’m done with my due diligence. You can wait four weeks for the other guys, but then I’m gone.”
  • AI is now table‑stakes for M&A players; major workflow shifts will land within 24 months.
  • Banks lag, buy‑side sprints: heavy compliance slows bank deployments, while PE funds can spin up private models fast.
  • 40 % Excel + 40 % PowerPoint + 20 % admin → rapid compression. Juniors will reach higher‑level thinking sooner.
  • Commercial DD in hours: AI can digest vendor, legal, tax, and market reports overnight—letting a buyer show up fully funded, DD‑complete, ready to sign.
  • Edge = proprietary insights + sharper questions, not raw research everyone can automate.
  • Judgment stays human: AI gathers; bankers advise.
  • Laptop‑grade, on‑prem models (Gemma‑class) unlock usage in the most regulated environments.
  • The AI assistant becomes an apprentice—learning your domain knowledge and improving its own judgment over time.

Why AI Matters Now

Pilarczyk started hacking to shrink junior workloads; LLMs were “eye‑opening,” turning repetitive drafting and analysis into one‑click tasks.

Banks vs. Buy‑Side: The Adoption Gap

Regulated banks must prove every AI tool is safe before production—“a formidable hurdle.” Mid‑market PE funds, less constrained, can deploy a private model next week—turning speed into an advantage and enabling pre‑emptive offers.

Commercial Due‑Diligence in Hours

Feed all third‑party reports into an agent that:

  • Flags valuation‑critical risks.
  • Suggests protections (price chips, reps & warranties).
  • Produces a consolidated IC memo.
  • Add human review and a buyer can issue a term sheet days after first look—exactly the “fully financed, docs ready” scenario Pilarczyk envisages.

New Skills, New Moats

Once baseline research is automated, value shifts to proprietary, relationship‑driven data and the ability to ask sharper questions.

Listen the full talk at:
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/6zeUwYipMIDv8CqGzWUGk2?si=87040f99b5ab478e
Youtube:https://youtu.be/haDDMUU4gng?feature=shared