By Mark Williams, Americas Chief Revenue Officer at Datasite

The adoption of digital tools and technologies to conduct business has steadily increased over the last several decades. Many of these technologies have revolutionized business, touching every sector and competency through improved communication, collaboration, and productivity.

But while digital transformation has become the norm, it hasn’t always been readily accomplished. Historically, developing and implementing a technology-driven strategy took years. However, that all changed with the global pandemic. Businesses were forced to adjust, and according to research, accelerated their digitization, on an average, by three to four years. Moreover, the implementation of changes took just a fraction of the time that organizations had originally expected.

One way companies have accomplished digital transformation is by acquiring technology to ensure their competitiveness and to future-proof their business. We’ve seen this up close on our platform, where we annually facilitate more than 13,000 deals, many of which were transformational. Last year, for example, technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) deals, the sector associated most with transformational deals, led all sectors for the highest percentage of total M&A volume. In 2021, global TMT deals, especially asset sales, purchases and mergers, increased by 58% on our platform, compared to 2020. This year, despite more economic uncertainty and other challenges, global TMT deals on our platform are still ahead, up 6%, through the first half of this year compared to the first half of 2021. In fact, most dealmakers expect transformational deals to continue to be the leading deal type for the next 12 months.

Newer technologies such as machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, have also increased the pace of advancement. This is particularly evident in the tools the dealmaking industry uses itself. The Covid-19 pandemic changed how dealmakers work and execute deals, leading dealmakers to use more digital tools to communicate and collaborate remotely, sometimes even using drones to help them execute effectively. This high-speed adaptation isn’t going away. In fact, dealmakers expect to use even more technology to conduct and execute their deals in the next 12 months.

Advanced technologies, such as AI and ML, have helped dealmakers automate many of the most time-consuming parts of M&A management. For example, dealmakers can take advantage of tools which fully automate the outreach to, and tracking of, potential buyers. This not only enables a better understanding of buyer or creditor habits leading to better visibility into essential business metrics, but also provides project status reviews all in one place, significantly reducing the number of false leads in the marketing phase as well as the speed from buyer interest to due diligence.

AI and ML-powered virtual data rooms (VDRs), or cloud-based, secure locations where dealmakers can share documents and artifacts while conducting due diligence, can automatically categorize thousands of documents in minutes, massively accelerating the process of sharing documents and artifacts during the essential due diligence phase of a deal. Additional features like AI-driven bulk allocation, indexing, and redaction of sensitive documents can make regulatory compliance much quicker.

The M&A due diligence process is one of, if not the most, labor-intensive processes, and AI is transforming this process by decreasing the time it takes to perform due diligence to less than a month in 2025 from three to six months in 2020.

All this automation, no matter which side of the equation a deal team sits on, is also reducing the time-consuming tasks that lead to burnout in the industry. And since almost 70% of global dealmakers in a survey of more than 540 say their workload has increased due to recent market events, this is good news. It may also help dealmaking organizations retain talent at a time when some M&A professionals are quitting and as global labor shortages are making it harder to retain employees after deals close.

Moving forward, adopting the right technology to efficiently and effectively manage the entire M&A process will be critical for companies to not only survive but to thrive in the post-pandemic world.

In this fast-paced and ever-changing climate, digital transformation is the only way to stay ahead.