Across board conversations this year, one theme keeps resurfacing: directors are leaning into growth, with deals firmly back on the table — and AI is a major catalyst. Many see today’s environment as a buyer’s market and are positioning to move while conditions create openings — even as their internal systems and processes are still catching up.

The appetite is real. M&A and strategic partnerships top the list of priorities this year, with 40% of directors citing deals as a leading strategy for 2026. M&A also ranks as the second-highest capital allocation priority (just behind technology adoption — including AI investments), with directors split evenly between investing in transactions and expanding into new markets. That tight pairing of capital priorities underscores how directors increasingly see AI and broader technology integration as the way to make those deals pay off — by building the data, analytics and automation muscles required to capture post-transaction value.

35% of directors say M&A opportunities are among the most pressing topics for their next board meeting, behind only strategic planning and AI-related risks and opportunities. In a striking asymmetry, just 1% cite the M&A landscape and valuations as a leading risk, while 26% view it as one of their greatest opportunities for 2026. Boards, in other words, are reading the macro environment as a moment to act — not wait.

Closing the ambition–execution gap

On paper, directors feel confident. More than half say they have strong transactional/M&A expertise on the board and another 38% report at least some expertise. Yet nearly one in five still list M&A among the most challenging areas to oversee, alongside AI, innovation and capital allocation. 

Taken together, the data suggests a familiar pattern: ambition is running ahead of infrastructure. Boards are ready to pursue transformative — often AI-oriented — deals, but many organizations still lack integrated data, standardized playbooks and technology-enabled diligence. If M&A is going to be the growth engine of 2026, transaction readiness has to become a continuous discipline, not a one-off exercise. In practice, that means pressure‑testing whether governance, due diligence and oversight are truly deal‑ready at all times — from roles and decision rights to data access and approvals — not just when a transaction is imminent. For a practical starting point, our transaction‑ready governance checklist outlines what to have in place across M&A, IPO and other liquidity events.

From transaction readiness to transaction velocity

While there’s great enthusiasm for deals this year, are companies truly ready? Our research last fall with Wilson Sonsini and NetSuite surfaced some sobering truths about M&A, IPO and other transaction readiness:

• Only 4% of organizations had fully integrated governance, risk, compliance and finance systems for transactions; roughly 60% were operating on siloed or partially integrated platforms.
• 56% pointed to limited resources as the chief barrier to deal readiness; 35% cited economic and geopolitical uncertainty and 28% a lack of experienced personnel.
• Adoption of core deal-enabling technology was thin: just 20% reported using secure data rooms, 16% ERP tools, 10% specialized financial reporting systems and 5% AI-powered tools for transactions.
• The takeaway then was clear: many organizations were still built for analog deals in a digital and AI-fueled market. Fast-forward to today: appetite has rebounded, but the underlying infrastructure hasn’t fully kept pace — especially as AI accelerates dealmaking and raises the bar for diligence, integration and oversight.

For boards, the mandate is clear: make transaction readiness always-on. Use integrated systems, define clear roles, standardize diligence, stand up robust data rooms and maintain continuous board engagement. The boards that come out ahead in this cycle won’t necessarily be the ones doing more deals — they’ll be the ones pairing bold, AI-informed strategy with the governance, data and integration muscle to execute cleanly.

Explore the full findings in What Directors Think 2026 and revisit our transaction readiness report to pressure-test your board’s M&A playbook for the year ahead.