Bolting on AI copilots is now a discount at exit, not a premium.

In an August 5 guest column, adviser Itay Sagie argues that stacking copilots, model integrations, orchestration layers, prompt libraries, vector databases and third-party AI tools reduces exit value by raising acquirer concerns about integration complexity, vendor dependency, compliance exposure, and security risk in diligence. The defensibility half is sharper: summarization, search, chat, recommendations, and content generation get copied in weeks, so they don't justify a multiple. Single-source opinion, and it inverts what most boards currently assume, which is why it's worth reading.