An AI market scan shows how competitors are deploying AI before you sign a deal. See how PE investors use it during target screening to underwrite smarter.
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Topic
AI Diagnostic
TL;DR
An AI Market Scan is a structured review of how competitors and disruptors are using AI in a specific industry so you can underwrite deals with evidence, not hype. It helps validate (or challenge) your investment thesis by showing which AI use cases are actually delivering EBITDA uplift, margin improvement, revenue expansion, or cash acceleration. A core output is a Best Practices Compendium that consolidates repeatable, real-world AI patterns from public disclosures, job postings, interviews, and implementation case studies.
Best for: Mid-market PE teams screening a new sector or evaluating multiple targets quickly, especially when you need a clear AI angle to support underwriting and differentiate in a competitive process. Also useful when you want to reduce post-close execution risk by starting with proven, category-specific AI use cases.
AI is reshaping entire industries. Understanding how a sector is evolving—and which AI use cases are driving the greatest value uplift—is no longer optional. It’s fundamental to identifying the right assets and underwriting them with confidence.
That’s where an AI Market Scan comes in.
What is an AI Market Scan?
An AI Market Scan is a systematic analysis of the competitive landscape— designed to uncover how peers and disruptors are leveraging AI in a given category. It’s not just a diligence tool; it’s a strategic compass that helps you identify execution gaps, set competitive benchmarks, and shape a winning value creation plan before the deal even closes.
It's not just research. It's competitive intelligence for value creation.
What You Learn Through an AI Market Scan
A well-executed Market Scan goes beyond headlines and hype. It delivers a structured, evidence-backed view of how AI is being deployed across the category and what that means for your investment thesis, target screening, and transformation roadmap.
The primary benefits are to:
Validate the Investment Thesis: If your thesis relies on an AI-driven growth or efficiency story, the scan provides the evidence to either support or challenge that narrative.
Identify Strategic Gaps: Pinpoint where the target is lagging. For example, are competitors using AI for predictive analytics for churn reduction while your target is stuck on data visualization?
Reduce AI Transformation Risk: The biggest challenge in any AI initiative is execution. By understanding what's already working for peers, you can avoid costly science projects and focus your investment on proven, high-ROI use cases from day one.
Gartner predicts that over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by end of 2027. However, AI market scans must identify the 60% that will succeed and potentially disrupt traditional business models in the target sector.
Your AI Transformation Partner.
Extract What’s Working: The Best Practices Compendium
At the heart of every Market Scan is a Best Practices Compendium—a curated library of AI use cases pulled from public disclosures, interviews, job postings, and implementation case studies.
MIT's research found that 95% of generative AI pilots fail to deliver measurable returns. AI market scans distinguish between proven, production-ready use cases and experimental initiatives likely to fail, helping prioritize post-acquisition investments.
By extracting repeatable success patterns, It maps:
What workflows competitors are targeting with AI
Which vendors or platforms are being used
What outcomes are being realized (e.g., DSO reduction, margin uplift, revenue expansion)
These insights become the evidence base for shaping your investment thesis and refining your target screening criteria.
Codify the AI Playbook in the Category
From those findings, we distill the AI playbook for the category.
This includes:
Where AI consistently drives EBITDA uplift or revenue expansion,
Which workflows are being automated, augmented, or reimagined,
How the best players are integrating AI into their operating models.
McKinsey identifies only 6% of organizations as 'AI high performers' (those attributing 5%+ EBITDA to AI ). AI market scans should identify these leaders in the target sector to understand what's possible and set realistic value creation targets.
This playbook isn’t theoretical—it’s built from observable strategies in the field. It becomes a pre-close roadmap that informs value creation planning from day one (links back to the full AI Diligence framework).
Arm the Deal Team with Practical Tools
Insights are only useful if they’re actionable.
That’s why the Market Scan also delivers a deal-ready toolkit, including:
A target screening guide to identify which businesses are AI-ready and which aren’t
A practical question bank for use in management meetings and early diligence calls, designed to test AI “solvability” of key performance issues
A category opportunity map highlighting whitespace, disruption risks, and entry points for transformation
Together, these tools ensure your team isn’t just informed, they’re prepared.
Why It Matters for PE Funds
AI Market Scans offer a strategic edge before a deal even hits the pipeline.
They help you:
Shape investment theses based on market evidence, not gut feel
Screen targets smarter, avoiding companies unlikely to benefit from AI
Underwrite more confidently, with clear use cases and expected outcomes
Differentiate in crowded processes, showing sellers a compelling transformation vision which gains you an advantage in a competitive bid
For mid-market PE firms without in-house AI research teams, this becomes a fast and credible way to leapfrog to a position of informed advantage.
Bottom Line
An AI Market Scan turns scattered market noise into strategic clarity.
It gives you a real-world view of what’s working, what’s hype, and what’s possible—so you can invest behind the signal, not the noise.
Whether you're exploring a new sector or preparing to deploy capital, this is the research that makes execution faster, screening sharper, and returns stronger.
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