Robert and Toby often get together like old men on a park bench, to discuss a variety of topics. Some of them become podcasts, others don't. And sometimes one topic sparks a discussion on something different. That was the case recently when the dynamic duo was trying to get their heads around AI and what impact it is/will have on the world of M&A. It was from that discussion we asked ourselves what tools are currently used to manage M&A transactions and we concluded that the technology is not much more than a spreadsheet on steroids with a simple data room and a database bolted on. Yes, I know we're being harsh, but what really came out of the conversation was the idea that the gap between current technology tools and AI is massive and we ended up with a  view that AI will have such a dramatic impact that it's easy to equate it to that period where parts of China went from Abacus to Advanced robotics.But that's jumping ahead of ourselves. We will start to discuss AI next week and we'd welcome anyone to join us who is keen to offer their thoughts and experiences. But in the meantime, we thought it was worth drawing the baseline and explore what tools are currently available and whether they are adding value to M&A transactions.