The PE AI playbook: Argus360 at the core, built out as you need it.
How we ramp AI at a private equity firm and across its portfolio, drawn from Soligence engagements. Discovery first, then the Argus360 base layer and the Customer & Deal Intelligence module that is in production today, then further modules only where the firm needs them, with our AI Factory filling the gaps a module does not cover. Your team's AI capability is built the whole way through.
Five stages, each one paying for the next.
The order matters: discovery tells us what the firm actually needs, the Argus360 base layer gives every later stage something to read from, and modules and custom builds are added only against a measured need.
1. Discovery
Two to four weeks with the deal team, IR, finance, and compliance. We map where the hours go (data rooms, IC memos, LP reporting, portfolio monitoring, fund ops), what systems and data exist, and what the information barriers and audit requirements are. The output is a scoped plan: which Argus360 module to implement first, which further modules the firm is likely to need, and what will need to be custom. Credited in full toward the project work that follows.
Measure: a baseline for every workflow in scope, agreed before anything is built. How discovery works →
2. Implement the Argus360 base layer and Customer & Deal Intelligence
The base layer is the semantic layer over the firm's knowledge: customers, deals, LPs, documents, conversations, and operating data, connected and queryable in the context of the work. On top of it, the Customer & Deal Intelligence module, the first Argus360 module in production: agents do the data capture, new deals are matched to the LPs most likely to fund them, deal and LP briefs are drafted for review, and portfolio signals surface. Licensed and hosted by Soligence, tuned to the firm's deal process, LP cadence, and controls.
Measure: annual software spend, brief preparation time, share of deal flow captured without manual entry. Case study →
3. Assess whether further modules are needed
With the base layer live, the next modules become a question of evidence, not a roadmap. Deal Execution (data room first read, red-flag memo with citations, first-draft IC memo the deal team verifies) and PortCo Health (board packs read every quarter, covenant headroom and KPI drift flagged as they move) are planned; we implement them where the firm's deal volume and portfolio make the case. Until a module ships, the interim work is scoped as project work, and discovery settles whether it runs inside Argus360 under license or as a system the firm operates.
Measure: hours from data room open to first-read memo; exceptions caught before the board meeting. The Argus360 modules →
4. Fill the gaps with the AI Factory
Every firm has work no module covers: LP reporting and DDQ assembly, fund finance exception handling, research and memo production on the firm's own materials, and inside the portfolio, the AI workstream in a portco's 100-day plan. Our AI Factory, the senior engineering team and agent workflows behind every custom system we ship, builds these on the same foundation and hands them to your team with documentation, training, and governance.
Measure: the operating metric each workflow was scoped to; nothing ships without one. The portco 100-day sprint →
5. Build the firm's own AI capability, all the way through
This is not a final step; it runs alongside the other four. Deal teams and operating partners trained on the workflows they will actually use (delivered through Soligence Elevate), governance and review gates the compliance owner signs off on, and a living AI policy that answers the LP diligence question: what the firm uses, where data goes, how information barriers and MNPI are handled, how outputs are reviewed. By the time the last module is live, the firm runs it.
Measure: adoption by the people the workflow was built for; time to answer an LP diligence request on AI. Soligence Elevate →
Three things we tell firms not to do first.
Don't start with the investment thesis
Your edge in sourcing and underwriting is the firm's IP. AI pays back fastest on the assembly work around it, and that is where we focus. The investment process stays yours.
Don't buy a chatbot for the firm
A general assistant with no access to the firm's data, deal history, or controls produces confident text and no operating leverage. Every step above is wired into a system of record.
Don't roll out to ten portcos at once
Prove one workstream in one portco against a baseline, document it, then export the pattern. Portfolio-wide mandates without a measured first result stall at the second board meeting.
Walk through the playbook against your firm.
Tell us where your firm or portfolio is today and where the hours go. On the intro call we'll map these five stages to your situation and tell you honestly whether to start with discovery now or wait.
Intro call
30 to 45 minutes. You describe the bottleneck; we tell you honestly whether AI is the right lever and what discovery would cover. No deck, no pitch.
Discovery
Two to four weeks. We map the workflows, data, and controls, baseline the value, and return a scoped plan with timeline and pricing. Starts at $5K, credited in full toward project work that begins within 60 days.
Project work
Argus360 for the core customer and deal intelligence, custom builds by our AI Factory for what a module does not cover. Structured the way you and we agree is best: a fixed-scope sprint, a multi-phase build, an ongoing operations partnership, or fractional AI leadership.
Most engagements follow this pattern. See how we work.