We have spent years automating our professional services delivery with proprietary AI tools, but the buyer is applying standard local industry multiples. How do we use Ankura's regression-based valuation model to prove our tech-like enterprise value?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Standard business brokers use subjective, local multiples that fail to account for structural differences in operating leverage. If your professional services firm uses AI-powered workflows to achieve software-like margins, you must abandon traditional valuation multiples and use a quantitative, data-driven approach. Ankura's valuation framework uses a regression-based model trained on a comprehensive dataset of publicly listed companies to calculate enterprise value.

By utilizing this methodology, you can isolate specific financial metrics, such as your gross margin, revenue growth, and capital efficiency, and compare them directly against broader market data. The regression model objectively demonstrates how each percentage point of margin improvement increases your enterprise value, removing the subjective bias of a local broker.

When presenting to buyers, show how your AI integrations have decoupled revenue growth from headcount. Use the model to prove that your operational efficiency places you in a different peer group than typical services shops. This quantitative evidence forces the buyer to value your firm based on its actual financial performance and scalability, rather than lazy, industry-average multiples. It shifts the conversation from a subjective negotiation to an objective financial reality.