Accordion Intelligence's AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation offers private equity professionals a practical guide to the evolving intersection of AI and value creation. In an era of AI hype and information overload, the show zeroes in on what truly moves the needle.
Each episode highlights real examples of data, point solutions, and embedded intelligence that enhance decision-making, streamline operations, and accelerate enterprise value.
You'll hear candid conversations with experts, operators, and private equity practitioners who are using AI today to deliver measurable outcomes.
[Crossover: PE FunCast] Building Your 2027 AI Budget with Accordion's Justin D'Onofrio
2026 was the year of unchecked AI spend - no policy, no budget, no discipline about what got purchased or why. That changes in 2027 budget season.
On this crossover from the Private Equity FunCast, host Devin Mathews sits down with Accordion's Justin D'Onofrio, Managing Director on the Performance Management team. Justin talks AI spend with PE-backed CFOs every day, and he walks through an 8-step framework for getting 2027 planning right. They dig into why 91% of PE-backed CFOs can't size their AI spend, and why 83% of portfolio companies are running AI pilots with almost nothing tied to measurable value.
AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation is brought to you by Accordion. Read our guide for how to budget for AI at https://www.accordion.com/how-to-build-ai-budget-2027/ and reach out to our team at ai@accordion.com (mailto:ai@accordion.com).
8 Sept 2026
Scaling AI from pilots to programs
Accordion's latest AI at Scale survey report reveals a market that's moved past pilots but still hasn't built the foundations to scale. Fewer than 30% of portfolio companies have a formal AI playbook or center of excellence. Only 17% of CFOs have claimed AI transformation as a strategic mandate. And 71% of operating partners point to data readiness as the single biggest blocker.
Ash Pembroke, Managing Director, AI Strategy and Value Creation at Accordion, returns to unpack what's actually happening inside PE-backed finance functions right now: why "forward-deployed engineer" models fail without the right team structure, why data readiness is really a decision-making problem in disguise, and why 86% of operating partners now expect buyers to pay a premium for AI-enabled finance capability.
AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation is brought to you by Accordion.
Read our PE AI adoption benchmark report: https://www.accordion.com/the-pe-ai-adoption-benchmark/
6 Aug 2026
For AI-enabled portfolio companies, speed is faster than you think
Ishan Gammampila, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Apax Partners, joins Kyle to unpack what "speed" actually means when AI moves from personal use into portfolio company operations. The conversation moves through real deployments: a cybersecurity portco that scrapped two years of legacy dev process and rebuilt in six months, a CPG business that replaced a manual Excel-based inventory pipeline with a self-healing system built in a week, and a pricing engine overhaul that cut sales cycles from 6–9 months to 1–2 weeks by mapping every job to be done and assigning it an agent.
Ishan also breaks down the data readiness debate: why waiting for a perfect warehouse is the wrong instinct–and what happened when his team gave business users raw MCP-to-Claude access to messy data on day three. Kyle references Ishan's Substack piece on that exact experiment - What Happens When You Show Stakeholders Their Data on Day 3 - read it here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-194361190 (https://substack.com/home/post/p-194361190)
Also covered: why the real diligence question isn't "do we have the tools" but "do we have the right people," the jobs-to-be-done framework for deciding where AI agents belong versus where deterministic rules still win, and why getting to 80% now takes a fraction of the time—but the last 20% is still a grind.
AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation is brought to you by Accordion.
https://www.accordion.com/
This week, Kyle takes a seat on the other side of the mic as a guest on ParkerGale's Private Equity FunCast. Together with host Devin Mathews, they dig into how AI is actually impacting middle-market private equity companies, function by function - what's real and what's hype, and Accordion has the data to tell the difference. Kyle's boldest call: the Office of the CFO is facing its biggest transformation yet.
AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation is brought to you by Accordion.
For more about Accordion visit accordion.com and reach out to Kyle and his team at ai@accordion.com.
5 May 2026
What AI Exit Readiness Looks Like for PE-Backed Companies
What does it actually mean to be AI-ready at exit - and how has that bar shifted in just the last 12 months?
Kyle Roemer sits down with Giacomo Sonnino, Advisory Director at Charlesbank, to unpack what buyers are looking for today and what separates differentiated companies from ones just keeping up.
Giacomo breaks down three levels of AI value creation, why companies stuck in pilot purgatory are falling behind, and what AI theater looks like in diligence. He also makes the case that finance isn't a future opportunity; it's a proven one. And every CFO needs two answers: what you're doing today at your existing company today - and what the finance function of the future will be.
AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation is brought to you by Accordion.
https://www.accordion.com/
20 Apr 2026
The “Is SaaS Dead?” Episode. What you need to know about AI for PE in April 2026
Is SaaS dead? The answer is more complicated than you think.
Kyle Roemer and Adam Silverman break down the AI disruption reshaping SaaS - and what PE firms need to understand right now. As of early 2026, one question is dominating every client conversation: will AI disintermediate the software businesses PE has spent decades building and investing in?
Kyle and Adam dig into what's actually happening in the market: how AI-native vendors are changing the game, why data accessibility is becoming the ultimate defensibility test, how pricing models might evolve beyond the seat-based era, and where the real moats are forming (hint: regulated industries). They close with a practical rapid-fire on exactly where to focus if you're advising a PE sponsor about SaaS business today.
SaaS isn't dead. But the playbook is changing fast - and the window to adapt is narrowing.
AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation is brought to you by Accordion.
2 Apr 2026
Beyond the Hype: What Ramp’s Spend Data Reveals About AI Adoption in Private Equity
Most conversations about AI adoption rely on surveys, stock market swings, or expert opinions. Ara Kharazian, Lead Economist at Ramp, has something better: real transaction data from thousands of businesses showing exactly where, how, and how much companies are actually spending on AI.
Ramp's position as a corporate card and spend management platform gives Ara access to line-item receipt data across a wide swath of the economy - tracking which LLMs companies are buying, how spend is evolving, and what's actually driving adoption.
In this episode, Ara breaks down the findings from our joint white paper with Ramp, AI in PE: Ahead of the Market, Behind the Curve. Notably, why PE-backed companies are outpacing the broader market - with 59% actively spending on AI versus 41% of non-PE peers.
Read the full AI in PE: Ahead of the Market, Behind the Curve white paper here https://www.accordion.com/ai-in-pe-ahead-of-the-market-behind-the-curve (https://www.accordion.com/ai-in-pe-ahead-of-the-market-behind-the-curve)
For more on Ramp, visit https://ramp.com/partners/accordion (https://ramp.com/partners/accordion)
AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation is brought to you by Accordion.
9 Mar 2026
From Systems of Record to Systems of Action: Unlocking AI in CRM and FP&A
In this episode, Kyle Roemer, Steve Jones, Bryce Baker, and Justin D’Onofrio discuss how AI is being applied inside existing CRM and FP&A systems to drive real business value. The conversation explores practical use cases in platforms like Salesforce and modern financial planning tools, from improving sales workflows and forecasting to automating analysis and decision support.
Their discussion emphasizes starting with use clear business problems, clean data, and workflows teams already use, offering a grounded look at where AI is delivering results today and how operators can prepare for what comes next.
23 Feb 2026
What you need to know about AI for PE in February 2026: Coding, Ambient AI, and Investment Processes
In the latest episode of AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation, Kyle Roemer is joined by Adam Silverman for a download on the biggest AI developments impacting private equity right now.
They break down three major shifts:
Developers are becoming AI architects - moving from handwriting code to designing, supervising, and quality-controlling agent-driven systems
The transition from agentic to ambient AI, with always-on systems monitoring deals, markets, and internal data in real time
AI-powered investing is earning trust through better data access, improved accuracy, and institutional-grade research partnerships
The result: faster builds, smarter diligence, and a growing edge for firms that activate their proprietary data.
AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation is brought to you by Accordion Intelligence.
9 Feb 2026
7 AI Predictions for PE in 2026 with Adam Silverman
In this episode, host Kyle Roemer is joined by Adam Silverman to break down his 2026 predictions for how AI will reshape private equity workflows.
Adam argues that everyone inside PE firms will be using agents, as the shift moves from tools that answer questions to systems that take action. That evolution comes with behavioral changes too: typing will start to phase out, with voice and dictation moving work closer to the speed of thought.
They explore how spreadsheets and slides-creation should get automated this year, eliminating manual busywork and freeing teams to focus on craft and insight. Adam also explains why AI-native firms will leapfrog larger competitors, how research and diligence work will be increasingly AI-driven, and why the biggest strategic divide is clear: companies that connect their data to AI will pull ahead - while those that don’t fall behind.
AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation is brought to you by Accordion Intelligence.
15 Jan 2026
The AI Maturity Curve: Miles Rowland on How AI in the Data Stack Will Fuel PE's Next Value Creation Wave
In this episode, host Kyle Roemer is joined by Miles Rowland who leads data and AI initiatives for Searchlight Capital’s value creation team. Together they discuss a clear, practical framework for AI maturity: moving from basic chat tools to AI connected to your data, to agents that take action, and ultimately to ambient AI operating quietly in the background. Miles unpacks how AI is reshaping the data stack, changing the role of analysts and unlocking faster, more intuitive access to insights through natural-language interfaces - one of the biggest value creation opportunities for mid-market portfolio companies today.
AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation is brought to you by Accordion Intelligence.
8 Dec 2025
Launching the Future: Ash Pembroke on AI Strategy, Scale, and Value Creation in Private Equity
In the debut episode of AI & PE: The Future of Value Creation, host Kyle Roemer speaks with Ash Pembroke, Accordion Managing Director focused on AI strategy and value creation, about how PE-backed portfolio companies are already using AI to scale, streamline operations, and accelerate portfolio growth. Ash shares practical advice for CFOs and sponsors on where to invest their AI dollars, how to incorporate AI into value creation plans, and why data readiness drives real ROI. She also explains why empowering top performers—not just automating tasks—delivers the biggest gains.
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