Perspectives From the 2nd Annual SS&C Intralinks AI Bootcamp

Welcome to Reinventing Professionals, a podcast hosted by industry analyst Ari Kaplan, which shares ideas, guidance, and perspectives from market leaders shaping the next generation of legal and professional services. This is Ari Kaplan, and I'm honored to be speaking to you just after the Intralinks AI Bootcamp, our second annual. I am privileged to be speaking with my colleague and friend, Torben Rankine, who is the Director of Corporate Sales for Intralinks. Great to see you, and thank you so much.

It was excellent to have you here back in Silicon Valley for this second AI Bootcamp. Ari, you moderated last year's session, you did it again today. What's the sentiment in the room in this second AI Bootcamp? This was such a sophisticated group, and as opposed to 2025, when we were talking about basic use cases or overcoming reluctance or fear, this year they were talking about deploying an array of agents, leveraging all kinds of technology, and a level of comfort that you don't even see in a lot of other jurisdictions.

It was a wonderful and vibrant conversation. I feel like you always know when it's going well because we go too long and people stay, and they really want to learn from each other. And credit to Intralinks for facilitating such a fantastic dialogue. It was very interesting.

It was how is AI feeding and helping and facilitating the daily life of a corporate development team? And then also how it's facilitating actual diligence, the sourcing diligence and post-merger integration work. Those were the two levels of conversation. It was interesting that there's such a growth in use of AI agents that we heard in the room, but then also some growing fear about the risks involved.

And sophisticated leaders are acting in ways that are advanced but measured. They recognize that in order to support their teams and to empower deal-making, they really need to use the tools that are available, but use them responsibly and ethically, and in a way that's going to give them a competitive advantage, but to do so in a way that will allow them to actually close the transaction. People shared really interesting perspectives and stories about how they're using it. It was just very tactical and less theoretical.

There was also some future gazing. People were really thinking about where will we be a year from now and how advanced will this conversation be in 12 months. We did this last year as a little bit of an experiment, and I feel like it's been validated even further this year 'cause I think there is an appetite to learn from each other and really understand how these tools are being worked on within teams. So it is super interesting.

I think it was a very valuable session. And I had several conversations with people who talked about the interplay between the corporate development teams and the legal teams, and how the best legal teams empower. They don't stand in the way or focus as much on risk, much more on solutions and how you accommodate what the organization is trying to do, and to manage the risk and the legal ramifications in ways that drive success. It was a mindset that seems reflective of what we have come to appreciate about being in Silicon Valley.

I'm really looking forward to next year's because I think it's gonna be, music to my ears, very interesting to see this group expanding. Last year we might have been 12. This year I think we were closer to 20. Standing room only.

It was really incredible. We had to bring in chairs. The appetite for this conversation at this moment with your team is really remarkable. It's a change of mindset for sure, and everyone's on the same learning curve with AI and the possibilities of AI.

So thanks, Ari for doing this again. Torben, thank you so much. Really been a privilege. Thank you for listening to the Reinventing Professionals podcast.

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