Our AI journey didn’t start with a roadmap slide or a simple on-platform chat wrapper. It started with a simple, human question: “What if everyone could use AI like a pro?”
This led to two paths that have now become one:
- Inside-Out: Changing how we work at DiligenceVault.
- Outside-In: Understanding client workflows and turning our “aha!” moments into AI offerings that help clients do the same.
At the beginning of our AI journey, we made a bet that if we put our people’s AI knowledge first, adoption would follow. It worked.
The Foundation: When “I Don’t Know” Became a Challenge
In early 2024, we launched an AI Literacy Initiative across all teams. It wasn’t about passive learning; it was about every team experimenting and building their own “AI Literacy Map.”
Mastering our own AI layer (DV Assist) became as fundamental as checking email. We believe that if you truly understand how the product fits into client workflows, you can ensure clients get the most value from it.
Learning needs to be continuous and intentional. In our ImpactWeek25 this December, over 25% of the team opted for more AI training. Every functional head is encouraged to lead by example, sharing how they use AI daily, from client demos to internal workflows. Our CTO put it best: “The bar for learning has elevated. ‘I don’t know’ is much harder to say now.”
We took that same energy to our clients by creating AI readiness scorecards, sharing case studies on portfolio monitoring and RFP/DDQ workflows, and hosting webinars on real use cases. We shared these openly because we had already tripped over the hurdles ourselves.
Our Philosophy: AI as an Integrated Assistant
AI should be integrated to help create simple, trusted automation. This allows teams to focus on creative problem-solving, strategy, and critical decisions. Human expertise plus machine intelligence beats either alone. This philosophy shaped DV Assist; our product reflects how we work because we use it every day.
Our Two AI Values: Quality and Scale
- Quality First: AI raises the bar for internal use, ensuring cleaner sales follow-ups, consistent communications, and sharper contracts. For clients, DV Assist’s AI Writer helps craft professional content, while the AI Analyst surfaces hidden risks.
- Built for Scale: Operating at 1.3x capacity, our teams handle more complexity and move faster with delight, not burnout. DV Assist does the same for clients: scaling due diligence without the need to hire armies of analysts for manually heavy tasks.
To see this in action, we look at the three pillars of our AI-powered workflow: Efficiency, Intelligence, and Growth, and how our eight teams integrated them.
Pillar 1: The Engine of Efficiency
Ending the Busywork
Efficiency can sound cold, but for us, it was a “thank you” to the technology that ended the manual grind.
- The Sales “Aha” Moment: Instead of losing hours on RFPs and DDQs, our team uses DV Assist DDQ Autofill to turn hours of work into minutes.
- Legal’s Safety Net: Instead of manual clause-hunting, they use DV Assist to compare counterparty language against our templates, spotting negotiation areas instantly.
- Engineering & Product: They are delivering 20% faster because AI handles code “skeletons” and PRD drafts, leaving brainpower for complex architecture and strategy.
Pillar 2: The Intelligence Edge
Doing what seemed “Impossible” at scale
Build a data foundation that delivers human-in-the-loop intelligence.
- Legal’s Marathon: The team used DV Assist to extract and structure nearly 300 contracts across 32 data points each, which makes the contract clause monitoring accurate and gives legal and finance teams intelligence during negotiations.
- Client Success: They use AI to triage questions and prepare context-heavy drafts so they can respond faster and more personally, keeping humans in control.
- Finance & HR: Finance runs dynamic “what-if” revenue scenarios, while HR researches complex benefit trends across jurisdictions to ensure our team is cared for.
- Product: The team analyzes feedback patterns to ground prioritization in real evidence rather than gut feeling.
- Marketing: The team is operating at 1.75x capacity through AI-enabled workflows, driving sustained inbound momentum.
Pillar 3: Exponential Growth
Scale without Burnout
When we combine the time saved by efficiency with the insights gained through intelligence, we arrive at our third pillar: the ability to scale our impact beyond traditional limits.
- Battle-Tested Features: Every feature, from the AI Writer to the AI Autofill, is used by us first. We find the friction points so our clients don’t have to.
- Personalization at Scale: Sales and Marketing connect with buyers using messages that resonate with specific personas, not generic blasts.
- Faster Innovation: Because Product can handle higher-complexity user stories faster, we’re shipping innovation at a pace that was once a pipe dream.
- Engineering Excellence: Engineering uses AI to catch bugs and enforce best practices, making our platform more reliable.
How We Build AI: From Internal Friction to Client Solutions
Our experience using AI translates directly into the DNA of DV Assist. It guides us in Our knowledge of client data and workflows helps us create an integrated solution:
- AI Writer: Polished content generated using preset or custom prompts, ensuring professional communication is never a bottleneck.
- AI DDQ Autofill: Highly accurate RFP/DDQ responses that turn hours of manual work into minutes of review.
- AI Doc Engine: Intelligent document processing utilizing DiligenceVault’s pre-defined templates for ESG, Legal, Compliance, ODD, and Investment workflows.
- AI Memo Generator: Versatile output ranging from 1-page executive summaries to comprehensive 50-page Investment Committee (IC) memos.
- AI Analyst: Precision risk detection tailored to each client’s unique diligence and risk framework.
The Epilogue: A Marathon, Not a Sprint
Today, we are operating at 1.3x capacity. This wasn’t achieved by technology alone; it required a fundamental commitment to an AI-first mindset.
Our Lessons Learned:
- Patience is Critical: Success is a result of continuous learning, experimentation, and iteration, and not giving up when the first AI attempt doesn’t work.
- Universal Priority: AI isn’t a siloed Engineering project. It is a strategic priority for every team member across the organization.
- Shared Inspiration: One team’s “win” becomes the catalyst and blueprint for the next team’s breakthrough.
We use DV Assist alongside 10+ other tools daily. We build from experience because we live the friction points ourselves. When our Sales team closes a deal or Legal processes a complex contract using these tools, they don’t just see a feature – they understand its value viscerally.
2026 and Beyond
The bar keeps rising, and we have significant AI surprises in store.
- Using AI at DV: We are moving beyond the 1.3x productivity mark to explore entirely new workflows and insights that don’t yet exist.
- Building AI for Clients: We are supercharging DV Assist by embedding deeper intelligence, improving the nuance of AI outputs, and ensuring AI is accessible at every critical client touchpoint.
We answered our first question: How do we use AI like pros? For 2026, we are already onto the next one. Stay tuned.
