How we answer due diligence questions with AI

Q&A is where a due diligence slows down. A financial due diligence team works through the balance sheet and sends a batch of account-level questions. Which machines make up the balance on account 1250? What was the deposit booked on account 1396? Why is work in progress so much higher in April and May? What is account 2960, "Missing invoices", used for?

Each question lands with the seller's CFO, who has to stop and find the answer. Very often that answer is already in the data room: in the fixed asset register, the tax return, the trial balance. The buyer just didn't find it.

We built Q&A in the Dealdrive data room around a simple idea. A buyer should ask the data room first, and the seller should only get the questions the data room can't answer.

In short: while a buyer writes a question, Vera, our AI analyst, checks it against the documents that buyer can open and links the file that answers it. She flags questions the buyer's side has already asked. When a question does reach the seller, she drafts an answer for the seller to review and send.

Buyers ask the data room first

While a buyer writes a question, Vera reads it against the documents that buyer can already open. When a file answers the question, she says so and links it. In the example above, that is the fixed asset register for account 1250, the tax return for the deposit, the trial balance for the movement in work in progress and the project report for the accrual on account 2960.

Two rules keep this useful:

• Vera only looks at documents the asking buyer has access to. Pointing a buyer to a file they can't open is no answer at all.
• Vera stays quiet unless a file speaks to the question. A loose match is worse than none, because it sends the buyer off to read the wrong document.

If the data room has the answer, the buyer has it before they press send. If it doesn't, they send the question as usual.

Every answer cites its source

In a due diligence, an answer is only worth something if it can be checked. Vera answers from the documents in the data room and names the file each answer comes from. One click opens that file in the viewer next to the question, so the buyer can read the source and judge for themselves.

That matters most for financial questions. "It relates to a lease, and was zeroed in 2025" is a claim. The same sentence with the tax return attached is evidence.

Repeat questions get flagged

Buyer teams are large, and the same question gets asked twice. The financial advisors ask about the deposit on account 1396. Three days earlier, the legal team asked about the lease behind it.

As a question is written, Dealdrive lists the similar questions your side has already asked, with Vera's reason for thinking they overlap. The buyer can follow the existing thread instead of opening a new one, and the seller doesn't answer the same thing twice.

Questions stay inside the buyer group. You see your own side's questions, and not another bidder's.

When a question does reach the seller

Some questions need the seller: a judgement, an explanation, a document that isn't in the data room yet. For those, Vera drafts a suggested answer from the documents the asking buyer can see, and shows it to the seller next to the question.

The seller can insert the draft, edit it and send it, or ignore it and write their own. Nothing reaches the buyer until someone on the sell-side sends it. Where the data room uses review steps, the answer goes through them like any other.

On the buy-side, if a group has a gatekeeper, questions go to them for approval before they reach the seller. The advisor still decides what gets asked.

What this changes in a deal

• Fewer questions for the seller. Questions the data room already answers are answered there, so the CFO's time goes to the ones that need them.
• Faster answers for buyers. The answer arrives while the question is still being written, not in the next Q&A round.
• A cleaner Q&A log. Fewer duplicates, and answers that point to their sources, make the log easier to rely on when it is time to sign.

Fewer questions. Faster deals. See how it works for sell-side advisors and buy-side advisors.

Questions and answers

What does Vera show the buyer, and what does she show the seller?

While the buyer writes a question, Vera points them to documents that may already answer it and flags similar questions their side has asked. Once the question is sent, Vera drafts an answer for the seller. The buyer only sees that answer if the seller sends it, as it is or edited.

Which documents does Vera use to answer a question?

Only the documents the asking buyer can already open in the data room. She never points a buyer to a file they don't have access to.

Can other bidders see our questions?

No. Questions stay inside the buyer group. You see your own side's questions, and not another bidder's.

Can we approve questions before they reach the seller?

Yes. If your buyer group has a gatekeeper, every question goes to them for approval before it is sent.