From streamlining due diligence and document drafting to assisting regulators in identifying potential compliance issues, artificial intelligence is increasingly being woven into every stage of the M&A process.
But while AI promises to make transactions faster and more efficient, it is also creating fresh challenges for lawyers navigating an increasingly complex dealmaking landscape shaped by geopolitical uncertainty, regulatory intervention and shifting client expectations.
Those issues were explored at a roundtable event marking the launch of Global Legal Post’s Law Over Borders Global M&A Guide. The programme, which took place on 2 June, was hosted by Sullivan & Cromwell partner and guide editor Frank Aquila and co-host Jeremy Kutner, also a Sullivan & Cromwell partner, alongside contributing authors from 29 countries spanning Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and North America.
“There is a tremendous amount of capital moving toward the AI business,” Aquila said in his opening remarks. “Whether it’s AI M&A, AI infrastructure or AI disrupting businesses and therefore causing transactions to move forward at a certain pace, AI is something that will be in and around every transaction we look at.”
He highlighted billionaire Barry Diller’s proposed $18bn takeover of MGM Resorts as one of the latest trends – deals that AI cannot touch. In a public statement, Diller recently said: “We began investing in MGM nearly six years ago because we believed it represented a rare kind of business: one with real-world assets that AI cannot easily replicate or disintermediate and exceptional digital growth opportunities. That conviction has only strengthened over time.”
Aquila mentioned two more trends driving the M&A market. First, fewer but larger transactions, or megadeals, like the blockbuster $250bn takeover of xAI by SpaceX, and second, lower transaction pricing structures.
Rounding out the initial discussion, Kutner said regulatory analysis is also driving transactions, particularly for the megadeals. “Whether a deal can close or not today depends on a jurisdiction’s regulatory framework,” he said.
AI moves into everyday M&A practice
When Aquila asked participants about the most tangible impact of AI on their M&A transactions, participants agreed that AI has moved beyond experimentation and is now embedded in day-to-day transactional practice, with responses ranging from AI agents and document drafting to transactional due diligence.
David Altunian from Netherlands-based law firm Loyens & Loeft noted that AI-powered due diligence tools are significantly reducing the time required to review documents and identify issues, allowing first drafts of reports and routine agreements to be generated in a fraction of the time previously required.
“In Australia, we find that often insurance companies want to use AI for diligence, but we advocate for the lawyers to be involved. We want human lawyers to do the actual diligence,” said one of the Law Over Borders M&A chapter authors from Australia.
Several lawyers said that AI’s efficiencies are accompanied by concerns about how junior lawyers will develop the judgement traditionally acquired through the often-painstaking work of document review and drafting.
“One of the things we have to think about is how we train younger lawyers,” Aquila observed, noting that firms need to rethink how associates acquire experience as technology takes over more routine tasks.
Vivek Chandy of Indian firm JSA said that the use of tools like Harvey and Legora is common and JSA is finding them very useful. “AI is not yet reducing the number of associates for us but making them more efficient,” he said.
Others suggested that AI was not always reducing workloads.
Founding partner Kevin West of Toronto-based SkyLaw pointed to a growing trend of clients arriving with AI-generated analyses and comments that lawyers must review and assess.
“AI is adding a lot of work because things are often being over-lawyered,” he said. “They get their answer from AI, and many times we find that it hasn’t been thought through. Judgement and experience are essential.”
The challenge extends beyond clients.
Regulators themselves are increasingly deploying AI to sift through enormous volumes of information. Participants cited examples ranging from Canadian enforcement authorities monitoring public disclosures to securities regulators identifying anomalies that previously might have escaped notice.
“Information is becoming commoditised,” Sullivan & Cromwell’s Kutner said. “Judgement isn’t.”
Uncertain geopolitics and regulation
Alongside technological disruption, geopolitical uncertainty emerged as one of the defining themes of the discussion.
Lawyers across multiple jurisdictions described a more cautious environment for cross-border transactions, shaped by trade tensions, conflicts, currency volatility and evolving national priorities.
Participants from India noted heightened governmental sensitivity to geopolitical developments, while contributors from Korea cited the economic effects of instability in the Middle East. European lawyers pointed to policy unpredictability and protectionist tendencies as factors affecting investment decisions.
US tariff policies are also causing concern.
“US tariffs are one of the biggest issues affecting M&A policy and it is making everyone wait to do deals,” said a participant from Sweden. “Uncertainty is the biggest problem we have.”
As a result, participants said that execution risk has become a central focus of transaction planning, with deal teams seeking to shorten the period between signing and completion, anticipate potential obstacles earlier and structure transactions to improve certainty.
Regulation has become another defining feature of the M&A landscape.
Foreign direct investment screening regimes, antitrust reviews and national security considerations are extending deal timelines and influencing strategic decisions from the earliest stages of negotiations.
“Ten years ago, people wouldn’t focus that much on the regulatory,” said a participant from Ireland. “Now, policy becomes another layer you have to take into account. Governments are almost stakeholders in transactions now.”
Participants described transactions requiring multiple approvals across jurisdictions, adding months, and in some cases years, to completion timetables.
Reasons for cautious optimism
Despite the challenges, the mood was cautiously optimistic.
Several participants reported signs of renewed activity and identified sectors likely to drive deal flow.
“The same goes for other important businesses in Ecuador, our traditional agricultural exports: shrimp, palm oil, bananas, flowers. These commodities are having better value in the world, and that's going to bring a lot of M&A," said Roque Bustamante from Ecuador law firm Flor Bustamante Pizarro & Hurtado
Data centres, infrastructure, defence, energy and mining all attracted attention as areas of sustained opportunity. Lawyers from Canada pointed to increased investment in natural resources, while participants from Argentina and Ecuador highlighted favourable developments in energy and mining policy.
Others suggested that private equity activity may rebound as firms deploy accumulated capital.
“In Poland, PE investment is back and also more visible in regulated industries like financial institutions and professional services like accounting, tax and even law firms,” said Pawel Halwa from the Schoenherr law firm.
AI may change how deals are executed. Governments may complicate the approval process. But the underlying drivers of transactions remain intact.
“AI will make us more cost-efficient and might translate into more deals because this could be more appealing from a customer perspective,” said Monica Moreno from Panama law firm Morgan & Morgan Legal.
The trusted adviser endures
As the conversation turned to M&A’s outlook, participants repeatedly returned to the same conclusion. AI will automate routine tasks and increase efficiency. It may even make legal work more intellectually engaging by eliminating administrative burdens. But what it cannot replicate is the trust at the heart of the lawyer-client relationship.
“Lawyers’ role is to humanise transactions because the in-person cannot be replaced,” said Zoya Chaudary of Pakistan firm Haidermota & Co.
Kutner agreed.
“What we add is that we are trusted advisers to our clients,” he said. “We help them create solutions to problems and bring them together.”
In an M&A world increasingly defined by uncertainty, fragmentation and technological disruption, participants suggested that trust itself may become the legal profession’s most enduring competitive advantage.
Hear more perspectives from expert contributors to the Global M&A comparative guide:
The Global Legal Post Law Over Borders comparative guide to M&A is written by leading M&A practitioners from jurisdictions around the world and is a practical resource for in-house counsel, dealmakers, lawyers and advisers involved in domestic and cross-border transactions.
The guide examines how key issues – including deal structures, regulatory approvals, foreign investment controls, shareholder considerations and emerging technologies – affect M&A transactions across major jurisdictions.
It is available online as a downloadable PDF and for purchase as a hard-copy guide. Learn more and download the Global M&A Comparative Guide.
The Global M&A Law Guide is one of the titles in the Law Over Borders series, which also covers topics including arbitration, artificial intelligence, crypto assets, data protection, ESG, restructuring and insolvency, luxury law and fashion law.
Forthcoming guides include: Tax, Merger Control, White Collar Crime, Corporate Governance, FDI, and International Fraud and Asset Tracing.
For further information about the guides, email [email protected].
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