After AI transformations at 6 PE firms, one consultant's playbook: target 3 repeating workflows
alex_verem · x · 2026-09-30
The author reflects on a year working with 6 private equity firms on AI transformations:
- PE is the most serious AI transformation market she has seen: funds already believe in AI and only care how fast it moves numbers within a hold period.
- Portfolio-level approach: a fund owning companies across logistics, healthcare, financial services and software can't fund bespoke AI projects per portco; you must find workflows that repeat across the portfolio.
- Three areas keep recurring: engineering, the back office touching money, and customer-facing teams.
- Business model insight: hundreds of vendors pitch AI features into these areas, but most sell tools rather than change how departments operate — so her firm sells productized transformation services instead of software.
Takeaway: PE's uniform hold-period incentives plus repeating workflows make it a uniquely systematic market for AI adoption.
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