A buyer recently asked a founder during diligence, “How strong is your team at prompt engineering?” The seller froze. That moment wasn’t about AI hype… it was about readiness.
In 2025, this is becoming standard. Technical diligence isn’t just checking for uptime or test coverage anymore. Buyers want to know if your team can move fast, solve problems creatively, and use the latest tools to their advantage. Prompt engineering, AI-assisted development, and tools like Cursor or GitHub Copilot are part of that conversation now.
For acquirers, it’s not enough for a platform to be stable. They’re asking: will this team help us build faster? Will they slow us down? If your engineers rely too heavily on others for product thinking or resist new workflows, it becomes a risk. If they’re using AI to increase velocity and quality, it becomes a strength.
Sellers should be ready. This means documenting how you use AI today. Show how it improves output. Show your developers can adapt, and that you’ve created a culture of curiosity and speed. And if you haven’t leaned into AI yet, it’s not too late… but you need to start. Buyers are evaluating talent as much as tech. They want a team that pushes forward, not one that waits to be told what to do.
AI fluency isn’t a buzzword. It’s becoming a diligence requirement.