Help M&A teams boost efficiency and profitability with industry-specific AI

A market opportunity for vertical AI providers

Largely due to concerns about ROI, AI adoption at firms has remained fairly modest. In June 2024, only 23% of U.S. professionals services firms and 11% of U.S. financial services firms were using AI.

"Most industries are completely underserved with AI," said Nikolaus Grefe, Director of Product Strategy and Growth at Intapp, during a recent session at the AI and Data Summit by Bitkom. "That's the market opportunity for vertical Saas and, ultimately, vertical AI businesses."

That's because underserved industries like professional and financial services benefit more from industry-specific, vertical SaaS and AI solutions than from generic, horizontal AI tools. Unlike generic AI solutions - which are designed for companies selling goods - vertical solutions reflect partner-led firms' unique business models and workflows, and are designed to handle complex relationship networks, security requirements, and other industry-specific needs.

Dominik Ziems, Senior Manager of M&A at KPMG, spoke with Nikolaus Grefe during the session about how much his own team struggled before adopting vertical solutions.

"We spent millions on [a horizontal] company for more than 5 years, [but] the horizontal approach wasn't really working," Ziems explained. His team members couldn't easily track their many complex deals within the CRM, slowing down their already heavy workflow. They also couldn't source deals quickly, and they risked falling behind their competitors as a result.

To address those shortcomings, KPMG decided to abandon its horizontal CRM and adopt the leading CRM in financial and professional services: Intapp DealCloud.