Firms are no longer speculating about artificial intelligence (AI). In 2025, large firms rolled out tools across real client transactions. Many of them are launching their own customised tools built for specialist areas of client work.

The differences this is making on how firms work are already being felt. One of the major indicators of this is the first signs of a shift in the skills being sought by firms.

The use of AI tools has led to changes in recruitment practices, not only around the type of people firms think they need, but also how many, and what they expect those people to be able to do. This is impacting all areas of firm activities, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory. 

“Harnessing the full potential of AI – whether in financial due diligence, the wider deals process, or in any other area of business, requires a mindset shift, as well as investment in new technology and the skills needed to deploy it,” ICAEW CEO, Alan Vallance, said in a recent speech on AI.

“We all now need to be fostering cultures that embrace data-driven decision-making and which are receptive to the insights generated by AI. That includes developing an ethos of continuous learning and adaptation in response to the ongoing evolution of these technologies.”

AI is restructuring firms

For generations, professional services firms have been built on a hierarchical pyramid, with partners at the top. As AI is increasingly involved by preparing reports and carrying out analysis, this structure is being reshaped into more of a diamond, says David Petrie, ICAEW’s Head of Corporate Finance.

“As low‑level tasks are automated, junior roles start to reduce, and we end up with a lot of people in the middle who can supervise, interrogate and apply AI output. Then we have a smaller group at the top, which continues to take ultimate responsibility.”

This has implications for experienced employee workloads, the future skills makeup of firms, and succession planning. “Firms will look for different skills, so M&A professionals will need to ensure that their skillsets are futureproof,” says Petrie.

AI will need oversight from M&A professionals

AI can be usefully embedded into M&A workflows, being used for:

• screening populations of potential acquisitions,
• scanning data sets, and
• producing first drafts of documents. 

But there have high‑profile cases where over‑reliance on AI has led to serious problems.

AI models can quote legislation and precedent fluently, but they can also hallucinate, calling on draft laws that never passed or precedents that do not exist. It means that verifying AI‑generated work is essential.

This professional skepticism, a given attribute of an ICAEW Chartered Accountant, will become an even more important part of the job for those working in M&A advisory.

Additionally, while intelligent machines can suggest decisions to be taken based on their in-depth analysis, chartered accountants must ensure that professional judgement and ethical decision‑making remain the overriding basis for their decisions.

“AI represents an opportunity, not a threat for the next generation of M&A deal makers,” says Charindra Pathiwille, Managing Partner, Strategy, Risk and Transactions Advisory for Deloitte UK.

Pathiwille is speaking at a free ICAEW event on AI and M&A careers at Chartered Accountants Hall on 10 February and believes that AI is an enabler for practitioners. He says: “M&A processes are generally driven by large and complex data sets, and AI will enable you to do more with data and gain more insight with greater speed.

“This will enable advisors to focus on strategic outcomes and client value as opposed to the more labour intensive tasks.”

M&A is still about relationships

Alongside the need for the human in the loop, business is still about working with people whose skills and judgement you trust. Petrie explains: “The negotiation and relationship‑building side of deal‑making remains profoundly human.”

In practice, a buyout simply does not happen when management values, styles and culture clash with the principals of a private equity house, he adds – they will just take the cash from someone else. “People want to work with people that they like, know and trust,” he says. “This will remain the basis of any working relationship.”

To be successful, deal‑makers need to inspire confidence, and they must be able to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics under pressure. Those skills are important in any aspect of business but particularly important in negotiating deals and they are not traits that can be automated, however advanced technology becomes.

There is another thing AI simply cannot replicate, according to Petrie: networking. “It’s harder than you might think to grow a business network from behind your desk, relying only on information from colleagues in your own firm,” he says.

“In large organisations, it is all too easy to become insular and imagine the world stops at the office door. Careers rarely progress without a wider personal network and those networks are built over time, through conversations, shared experiences and reciprocity.”

All of this will be brought together at the event in February, which will feature candid, experience‑based insight from people directly involved in shaping firm strategy and recruitment. It will also discuss practical tools to help advisers respond to the changing nature of working in the field.