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Visual metaphor representing the article “Reframing AI: A Partner, Not a Proxy, in M&A” — highlighting how AI enhances speed and efficiency, but strategic judgment, narrative construction, and ethical oversight in M&A remain deeply human domains.

Reframing AI: A Partner, Not a Proxy, in M&A

Author:Team OneBridge
Last Publication Date:2025-06-20
Read Time:5 mins

Reframing Efficiency: AI Tools and Analyst Judgment

In today’s deal landscape, AI tools span the spectrum, from extracting clauses in legal contracts to enabling preliminary financial modelling and due diligence. These technologies offer clear advantages: speed, structure, and volume handling. Yet with this rise in automation comes a broader question for the industry: how will AI reshape the roles, relationships, and responsibilities that define modern M&A?

While the narrative of "AI replacing humans" has gained traction, the reality in M&A is more nuanced. AI can process data faster than ever, but strategic thinking, contextual interpretation, and stakeholder alignment remain deeply human domains. The most promising path forward lies in collaboration, where AI amplifies efficiency and humans bring judgment, creativity, and ethical reasoning to the forefront of deal-making.

To better understand how this collaboration unfolds across the M&A lifecycle, we explore key areas where AI tools currently intersect with human expertise and where their limitations become evident.

1. Contextual Gaps: AI Hallucinations in Modelling

Our analysts at OneBridge Knowledge Partners observed that while AI handles structured data well, it struggles when context drives accuracy. For example, benchmarks created without client-specific inputs often misrepresent reality. Imagine AI blending data from very different companies to create an 'average', the result might look statistically correct but be completely off the mark in practice. In one such case, it produced a figure that ignored crucial operational differences, highlighting a classic instance of AI hallucination. Such gaps highlight the need for human oversight to correct course and ensure models reflect real-world relevance.

2. Narrative Construction: Structuring the Investor Story

AI-generated content for Information Memoranda can accelerate drafting, but its outputs often lack flow and hierarchy. Data blocks may be technically accurate, but fail to form a compelling investor narrative. Analysts step in to reorient this content, sequencing insights, aligning with investment rationale, and tailoring tone, so the final document tells a cohesive strategic story.

3. Target Identification: Filtering Insight from Algorithms

AI is efficient at parsing databases to create preliminary target lists. However, algorithms overlook variables like founder sentiment, market whispers, or cultural nuances, factors that often determine feasibility. Here, human judgment is indispensable. Analysts refine AI outputs to filter for actual strategic fit and viability.

4. Stakeholder Intelligence: Sensing What AI Misses

Transcripts and compliance summaries generated by AI can outline discussion themes. But behavioural cues, hesitation, deflection, and emotional tone often reveal more than words. These qualitative dimensions influence deal perception and must be interpreted by experienced professionals.

5. Message Calibration: Tailoring Strategy to the Buyer Mindset

While AI can assemble business overviews, it cannot dynamically tailor tone for varied buyer personas. Persuasive positioning demands careful modulation, emphasising key metrics, shaping narrative pacing, and echoing investor psychology. Human refinement ensures the message resonates with decision makers.

6. Ethical Filters: Timing, Judgment, and Reputational Risk

AI might suggest optimal timings based on market signals, but it misses relational readiness or reputational risk. Decisions in M&A carry long-term implications. Whether it’s gauging when a founder is ready to exit or evaluating ESG tradeoffs, judgment anchored in professional ethics is key.


AI in Action: How OneBridge Deploys It

At OneBridge Knowledge Partners, we deploy AI tools across key service areas including report drafting, data visualisation, and preliminary analytics. These applications significantly reduce bandwidth strain and enhance efficiency. However, we consistently find that optimal outcomes arise only when AI capabilities are combined with professional expertise and strategic oversight.

In M&A, technology accelerates. But judgment, experience, and context drive decisions. The future of deal-making lies not in choosing between human or machine, but in fusing the strengths of both.