privateequityinterview.org

The private equity skills worth practicing when AI can read the data room

What private equity leaders say is changing as AI reads the data room, and the five skills that matter more because of it. Each comes with a worked example you can play through. For associate to VP deal-team roles. Free, no-login practice; no AI scoring.

Start with the first skill

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A $400m buyout returns 2.50x. Where does it come from?
  1. Equity in$200m
  2. EBITDA growth+$100m
  3. Multiple, 10.0x → 12.0x+$100m
  4. Debt repaid+$100m
  5. Equity out$500m

A third of it rests on selling at a higher multiple than you paid. At a flat multiple it’s 2.00x.

Change the numbers in the LBO calculator

Five skills

Our reading of the sources, not a hiring survey: when AI can summarize a CIM and build a model in minutes, the harder work shifts to checking what the numbers say, knowing where the return comes from and making a recommendation you can defend.

Skill 01 Test the thesis, not the summary

EQT’s Sven Törnkvist and Petter Weiderholm write that their firm has a roadmap requiring AI literacy across its investment professionals, and end on this: “Ultimately, it’s all about people, not technology – people with AI literacy.” Our reading is that literacy includes knowing what a tool computed. An AI summary of a CIM can be accurate sentence by sentence and still rest on the wrong denominator. A strong answer rebuilds the headline number from the data room and names what it would ask for next.

  • Sven Törnkvist and Petter Weiderholm EQT
Worked example · Diligence · Customer dataThe AI summary says 108% retention. Do you believe it?Try it: rebuild a 108% retention figure from the customer data

Skill 02 Know where the return comes from

Asked how juniors learn the business when a language model can do their analysis, Advent’s James Brocklebank called it an apprenticeship business:

“You need to understand how the models work before you just outsource them”

James Brocklebank, Co-Chair, Advent; co-head of its European business · Goldman Sachs Exchanges: Great Investors (published transcript), May 26, 2026

In the same answer he said Advent looks for people who are more native with AI. Our interview translation: let the tool build the model, but be able to do the paper LBO yourself, split the gain into growth, debt paydown and multiple, and say which assumption carries the hurdle.

Worked example · Paper LBO · ReturnsThe model says 2.5x. Where does the return come from?Try it: find out how much of a 2.50x rests on the exit multiple

Skill 03 Underwrite the cash flows that could shrink

Explaining in 2024 why Blackstone stopped buying businesses facing serious technology disruption, Joe Baratta said a low multiple wasn’t protection: “Because if those cash flows are declining, it’s very hard to predict how fast they’re declining in industries that are being disrupted.” He was talking about media and retail, not AI. We think the lesson carries over to any people-based service that AI could automate: split the revenue bridge, forecast the shrinking line on its own, and model a range of decline rates rather than management’s recovery.

  • Joe Baratta Blackstone
Worked example · Diligence · AI disruptionRevenue grew 9.1%. Is the review business safe?Try it: read a revenue bridge where 9.1% growth hides a decline

Skill 04 Build a plan that grows the business

Permira’s Dipan Patel describes a firm that invests in new products, channels and geographies, and says “growth underwrites are central to anything that comes through our investment committee.” That is one firm’s style, not a rule. But it names a test any value creation plan faces now that AI makes cost-out easy to model: does the plan still grow the business a buyer will pay for at exit, or does it cut what protects revenue?

  • Dipan Patel Permira
Worked example · Value creation · Operating planAI cost-out or growth: which plan goes to IC?Try it: choose between an AI cost-out plan and a growth plan

Skill 05 Make the recommendation and say what would change it

Francois Auzerais, who recruits for private equity at Korn Ferry, argues that AI speeds up judgment calls but not the hardest part of the job: “The hard truth about AI is that the toughest parts of PE—understanding a founder’s temperament, navigating board politics, selling a thesis to limited partners—remain stubbornly human.” Our lesson for an interview is narrower. A tool can draft the memo; you still have to lead with a decision and a price, show the downside case and say what evidence would change your mind.

  • Francois Auzerais Korn Ferry
Worked example · Investment committee · CommunicationYou have five minutes at IC. What do you recommend?Try it: rewrite an AI-drafted IC recommendation in five minutes
Free toolRun the paper LBO yourself: see where the return comes from and what the hurdle lets you pay

Sources

The quotes are what each person said or wrote in the linked source, in their role at the time. The interview advice around them is ours. This is an editorial reading of five public sources, not a representative hiring survey, and no quoted person endorses this site.

  1. Sven Törnkvist and Petter Weiderholm, Partners and Global Co-Heads of EQT Digital, EQT, at the time. ThinQ by EQT, “Why Private Capital Needs to Embrace Artificial Intelligence”, Jul 23, 2025. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  2. James Brocklebank, Co-Chair, Advent; co-head of its European business, at the time. Goldman Sachs Exchanges: Great Investors (published transcript), “‘Complexity is Our Friend’: James Brocklebank on Advent’s Private Equity Strategy”, May 26, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  3. Joe Baratta, Global Head of Private Equity, Blackstone, at the time. Goldman Sachs Exchanges: Great Investors (published transcript), “Private equity investing with Blackstone’s Joe Baratta”, Sep 10, 2024. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  4. Dipan Patel, Co-Managing Partner and Co-CEO, Permira, at the time. Goldman Sachs Exchanges: Great Investors (published transcript), “Dipan Patel on Permira’s ‘Artisanal’ Approach to Private Equity”, Sep 4, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  5. Francois Auzerais, Head of private markets for North America, Korn Ferry, at the time. Korn Ferry Briefings, “Can AI Give Private Equity an Edge?”, Mar 25, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.

Each quote is checked against the publisher’s own text: a written article, or the transcript Goldman Sachs publishes of a spoken interview, which it says may differ from the recording. None has been checked by a person listening to the recording.