It’s the classic battle for firms when Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) effort bloats the non-billable hour count, eroding firm profitability. Not just EDD on clients but also the EDD demanded by forensic accounting, M&A work and IPO preparations.
If only there was a way to collate, digest and analyse large volumes of data…The solution? AI-powered EDD that transforms how professional services firms approach investigation and research.
Manual EDD can take hours or days, depending on the subject and the risk behind the transaction. And fee earners often get drawn into EDD effort instead of earning fees. Hiring more junior back-office staff is inefficient and difficult to scale. Outsourcing reports to third-party providers can costs thousands per subject. In both cases, that’s profit walking out the door.
For advisory and accounting firms, this creates delays in client onboarding. Advisory teams working on M&A deals face tight timelines that manual research struggles to meet. Forensic investigations face deadlines but extensive manual research delays delivery of critical findings. And outsourced EDD providers can provide a fix but generally with a five-day turnaround time. In both cases, the solution is tech enablers that don’t make exhaustive EDD exhausting
This is where AI-powered intelligence transforms the IP's starting point. Rather than spending days building background manually, you can have a comprehensive investigation foundation within minutes of appointment.
The result? Investigations up to 10x faster than manual research.
AI-powered transaction due diligence enables teams to investigate multiple subjects simultaneously without proportional resource increase. Global business registry integration reveals corporate structures, directorships, and shareholdings across jurisdictions. Risk alerts highlight financial integrity, regulatory and reputational potential deal-breakers early.
The economic case extends beyond cost savings—it fundamentally changes how firms think about investigation capacity.
Time and cost: AI-powered research delivers comprehensive reports in hours at a fraction of outsourcing costs. Firms can conduct more investigations for the same budget, enabling broader risk coverage.
Capacity multiplication: Forensic and advisory teams can scale investigation capacity without proportional headcount growth, enabling faster turnaround on time-sensitive matters and more comprehensive research within existing budgets.
Partners can expand forensic and transaction advisory services without hiring additional investigators. Client onboarding becomes faster and more cost-effective. Some firms are positioning EDD as a value-added service offering to clients, creating new revenue opportunities.
Enhancing professional standards: The Financial Conduct Authority's guidance (FG 18/5) explicitly requires regulated firms to take "commercially reasonable" steps when conducting due diligence, including internet searches and commercial databases. AI-powered due diligence shows search methodology, sources consulted, and findings—precisely what regulators want to see during inspections.
The competitive advantage: Clients expect faster turnaround and competitive pricing while regulators demand higher standards and better documentation. Meeting these competing pressures through traditional manual methods simply doesn't scale.
The firms that embrace this evolution will find themselves with a significant competitive advantage: the ability to deliver superior due diligence faster and more cost-effectively than competitors still relying on manual research or expensive outsourcing.
Compliance and operations staff can spend their time interpreting findings and providing advice. Partners can confidently expand advisory services, knowing their teams have the tools to deliver quality work at scale.
The question isn't whether AI will transform professional services due diligence—it's whether your firm will lead this transformation or play catch-up to competitors who've already made the shift.
Request a demonstration to see how DeepDive can multiply your investigation capacity while improving the depth and quality of your work.