Your AI Is Only As Smart As Your Data
Every dealmaker has heard almost every variation of the familiar pitch by now. Artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize how you source deals. AI will transform your due diligence. AI will make you faster, smarter, better, etc.
The demos are slick. The promises are compelling. And firms are racing to adopt AI deal sourcing software, while terrified of being left behind. But what they don’t tell you in those presentations is that most of these generic AI tools are running on fumes.
The uncomfortable truth about AI in finance is brutally simple. You can have the most sophisticated algorithm in the world. You can deploy cutting-edge large language models. You can build the most elegant user interface anyone’s ever seen. But if you’re feeding it garbage data, you’re getting garbage insights.
The secret of most AI deal making origination tools is that they’re essentially fancy search engines layered over whatever data your firm has accumulated over the years. But this data may not be clean, comprehensive, or current. It can be fragmented, outdated, and often just plain wrong. Not to mention, most tools do not have proprietary data. Essentially, these are tools where you “bring your own data” and make the most of it.
Generative AI in finance is only as powerful as the information it can access and understand. And if that information is limited to what’s sitting in your company’s servers, filtered through your firm’s particular blind spots and biases, you’re essentially teaching your AI to be as myopic as your existing processes. You’re automating your limitations.
What Good Data Actually Looks Like
Real AI deal sourcing software needs to tap into something bigger. Much bigger.
At Cyndx, we don’t just rely on client data because, frankly, that’s not enough. Our platform pulls from our database that updates daily, constantly refreshing so you’re not making decisions based on stale information. We aggregate data from a wide variety of specialized data vendors who focus on different aspects of the market. We also collect data from tens of millions of webpages for our clients daily.
Beyond just trying to impress people with big numbers, you need to have the right data, properly structured, constantly refreshed, and comprehensive enough to give you the full picture of both public and private companies.
When you’re evaluating a potential acquisition target in, say, the enterprise software space, you need to know not just what they told investors six months ago. You need to know what’s happening internally right now, and answer certain questions such as who they’re hiring, what technology they’re using, who their competitors are, what the current regulations are, and so much more.
That’s the difference between an AI agent finance tool that surfaces real opportunities and one that just regurgitates what you already knew, maybe phrased slightly differently.
What Makes Up the Best Financial Agents
So what separates the best M&A software from the inferior products in the market? It comes down to a few key factors.
- First, proprietary and constantly updated data. If the platform isn’t bringing unique information to the table, it’s just a prettier interface for what you already have. Impressive AI multiplied by zero unique data still equals zero unique insights.
- Second, purpose-built AI tools for specific deal workflows. Generic AI models don’t understand the nuances of deal sourcing versus due diligence versus valuation. For valuations, you need company valuation software that’s designed for that exact use case, not a generic chatbot you’ve prompted into doing math.
- Third, transparency about sources and reasoning. When you’re making decisions involving millions or billions of dollars, you need to see why the system is recommending what it’s recommending. You need citations. You need to trace the logic. You need the ability to verify claims against source material.
- Fourth, integration with actual deal processes. The best deal origination platform isn’t a standalone tool you check occasionally. It’s embedded in how you actually work, feeding you insights at the moments you need them.
Early on, everyone was excited about automating grunt work, such as faster data rooms, quicker document review, shaving hours off repetitive tasks. But the conversation around AI software has matured considerably. Now the real focus is on generating returns that outperform expectations.
Data Meets AI in Dealmaking
This is where Cyndx’s full suite of AI-powered dealmaking tools makes a practical difference. We’re not a generic AI model trying to do everything. We’ve built specialized tools for how deals get done, with the data infrastructure to back them up.
- Finder, our deal sourcing tool, lets you explore companies while simultaneously learning about comparables, industries, investors, and similar opportunities. Instead of bouncing between five different databases, you’re seeing the full context in one platform.
- Acquirer, our M&A software for finding acquisition targets, queries potential targets based on the acquiring company’s profile and strategic objectives. The system doesn’t just match on industry codes or size ranges. It understands strategic logic, synergies, and market positioning. It surfaces why specific companies fit your criteria.. The predictive analytics component flags which targets may be open to conversations right now based on signals in the data.
- Raiser, our tool for identifying investors, queries potential financial or strategic investors based on industry, raise size, and relevant precedent transactions. When you’re advising a company on fundraising, Raiser shows you which investors have deployed capital in similar industries recently, not just who has a webpage saying they’re interested in the space.
- Valer, our business valuation software, conducts sophisticated and customizable business valuations with just a few inputs. The method allows for an adjustable DCF, PGR and WACC, comparable company valuations, and precedent transactions. This tool gives you a credible starting point for negotiations instead of spending days building models from scratch.
- Scholar, our deep research tool, creates comprehensive research around companies, industries, or potential transactions. Scholar pulls from Cyndx’s proprietary database, any uploaded documents and trusted external sources, generating detailed reports in minutes instead of weeks. For complex due diligence where you need to validate information and synthesize insights from multiple angles, Scholar does the heavy lifting with proper citations, helping teams move quickly without sacrificing rigor.
Save Time, Drive Value
That’s ultimately what everything comes down to. The best AI deal sourcing platform isn’t the one with the most impressive technical specifications in its marketing materials. It’s not the one with the flashiest demo. It’s the one that actually makes you better at your job in measurable ways.
That means saving time on the tedious parts, the data gathering and initial research that used to consume days of analyst time, so you can focus on the judgment calls that require human expertise and experience. And it means driving real value by surfacing opportunities and insights you wouldn’t have found otherwise; the non-obvious connections and patterns that create returns.
The technology is here and waiting for you. So it boils down to whether you’re using tools built on solid foundations or just impressive-sounding spiels. In this market, being a week late to an opportunity means watching someone else close the deal.
Your AI is only as smart as the data you feed it. Contact us to make sure you’re feeding it something worth digesting.