For private equity

AI consulting for private equity.

Fulkerson Advisors helps private equity funds put AI to work inside their portfolio companies, measured against the numbers in the value-creation plan. A founding partner leads every engagement, and the fee is fixed and agreed before we start.

Written for the operating partner, and for the deal partner who sits on a portfolio company's board. It covers where AI moves a number in a portfolio company, the question to answer before a deal, how our three engagements fit a fund's calendar, and the rules we work under.

Where does AI move a number in a portfolio company?

In the work a company does the same way many times a day, where people are the cost and the result can be checked. Each result below is from work we have put into production, told in the terms a fund would count.

Margin
A large US retailer now sets store staffing from a profitability model and a labor optimizer. Profits went up without cutting service levels.
Cost to serve
At a medical-device company, a voice agent now handles roughly 60% of inbound patient calls on its own. The support team works the complex cases.
Throughput and key-person risk
A data-integration provider used to map client data by hand. It now flows through a pipeline, the company handles more of it, and the result no longer depends on who did the work.
Capital discipline
An enterprise software startup had three AI pilots proposed. The one tied to renewal economics got funded, and the other two were stopped before they cost anything.
Across a portfolio
A Caribbean conglomerate wanted demand forecasting across its portfolio of businesses. The forecasting center is staffed by analysts trained locally, and planning accuracy improved.

Each has a case file with the challenge, what we built, and the outcome.

Few funds show a result like these on their own sites. Of the 1,115 US private equity firms whose websites we read in September 2026, 11 describe AI at work inside a named portfolio company and say what changed. The study names them.

Is the company's business exposed to AI?

It's worth answering before a fund pays for a company, and again before it sells one. The answer has two sides: the revenue a competitor using AI could take, and the cost AI could take out after closing.

The Diagnosis can run on a target before closing, with whatever access the deal allows, or in the first hundred days after. It ends in a written answer to both sides and says which work to do first.

For smaller deals, our study of nearly 40,000 US businesses for sale gives the asking multiple of cash flow by industry and size.

Chains backed by private equity already run 15% of US car washes and 9.3% of body shops, and our ownership study names every chain and its owner.

After a deal, groups tend to put the same tools on every company they buy. Sila put Avoca's AI booking widget on 33 of its 34 HVAC and plumbing companies' sites, and our before-and-after study shows what each group adds after the sale.

How do the three engagements fit a fund?

The Diagnosis is three weeks. It fits the first hundred days after a deal and ends in a written verdict on which AI work is worth doing at the company, in what order, and against which number in the value-creation plan.

The Build is twelve weeks and puts one system into daily use, measured from the first week, with a named owner at the company. At week three we tell you whether the system should go to production. If it shouldn't, we refund the rest of the fee.

The Standing Partner is a fractional Chief AI Officer, two to four days a month. For a fund, that partner can run AI across several companies and report what it changed to the operating partner and to each board.

Terms can be agreed once with the fund, so each portfolio company starts with a signature instead of a new negotiation. What AI consulting costs across the market, from published rate cards, is on its own page.

What rules do we work under?

The scope names the number the work has to move, and we measure it from the first week.
The company's data stays in its own systems, or with a model provider under contract not to train on it.
A named person at the company owns the system before we leave, and it runs without us.
We don't work for two companies in the same industry without telling both.

Questions

How do private equity firms use AI in portfolio companies?

The work that pays back first is usually work done the same way many times a day, where people are the cost and the result can be checked, such as customer calls, back-office processing, and scheduling. We start with one process per company and measure it against a number in the value-creation plan.

What is an AI operating partner?

Someone who runs AI across a fund's companies. They choose the work worth doing at each one, see it into production, and report what it changed to the operating partner and the boards. Ours is a fractional role, two to four days a month.

Can you assess AI before a deal closes?

Yes. The Diagnosis can run on a target before closing, with the access the deal allows. It says which cost AI could take out after closing and whether AI puts any of the company's revenue at risk.

Where can a private equity firm get an AI assessment of its portfolio companies?

From an outside firm that also builds what it recommends, so the assessment ends in work that can start. Our Diagnosis takes three weeks per company and ends in a written verdict on which AI work to do there, in what order, and against which number in the value-creation plan. Terms can be agreed once for the fund, so the next company starts with a signature.

Should a fund hire an AI consultant or build an internal AI team first?

Usually an outside partner first, on one company. An internal team needs work to do, and the first project shows which skills that work takes. Once several companies run AI systems, a fund-level hire or a fractional Chief AI Officer can keep them going. Every system we build has a named owner at the company before we leave.

How do operating partners find AI help for portfolio companies?

Through people who have seen the work: other operating partners, the fund's advisers, or a firm already working at one of the companies. Whoever it is, ask for a system they put into production and the number it changed.

What does AI consulting for a fund cost?

A fixed fee per engagement, agreed in writing before we start and quoted after a thirty-minute call. Terms can be agreed once for the whole fund. Published market rates are on our cost page.

Do you work with search funds?

Yes, after the acquisition. A searcher who has just bought a company usually runs it without an operations team, and the Diagnosis gives a written answer on where AI is worth the money.

Thirty minutes, one company.

Name a portfolio company, or one the fund is about to buy. We'll tell you whether AI can move a number there, which one, and which of the three engagements fits.

Book a thirty-minute call Read the case files