--- title: "CEO Phil's interview with FinTecBuzz: “Data architecture is the real AI investment” | Deal Engine" description: The top four tech priorities on every CTO’s mind Over the past six months or so, I’ve had meetings with 57 different PE firms, mostly with technology leaders or management-level professionals who have responsibility for the investment process and, often, the firm’s broader technology strategy and operating model. I took this opportunity to reflect on… image: https://dealengine.tech/hubfs/Deal%20engine%20%26%20Fintech%20buzz-1.png --- [![logo-blue-white](https://dealengine.tech/hubfs/Website%20%5B2025%5D/Logo/logo-blue-white.svg)](https://dealengine.tech/) - [Product overview](https://dealengine.tech/product) - [For tech leaders](https://dealengine.tech/for-tech-leaders) - [For deal teams](https://dealengine.tech/for-deal-teams) - [Investment Banks](https://dealengine.tech/investment-banks) [Book a demo](https://dealengine.tech/book-a-demo) [![logo-blue-white](https://dealengine.tech/hubfs/Website%20%5B2025%5D/Logo/logo-blue-white.svg)](https://dealengine.tech/) - [Product overview](https://dealengine.tech/product) - [For tech leaders](https://dealengine.tech/for-tech-leaders) - [For deal teams](https://dealengine.tech/for-deal-teams) - [Investment Banks](https://dealengine.tech/investment-banks) [Book a demo](https://dealengine.tech/book-a-demo) Blog # CEO Phil's interview with FinTecBuzz: “Data architecture is the real AI investment” Admin ![CEO Phil's interview with FinTecBuzz: “Data architecture is the real AI investment”](https://dealengine.tech/hubfs/Deal%20engine%20%26%20Fintech%20buzz-1.png) Read the full article on FinTecBuzz: [FinTech Interview with Phil Westcott, Founder and CEO of Deal Engine](https://fintecbuzz.com/fintech-interview-with-phil-westcott/) There's no shortage of PE firms experimenting with Frontier AI like Claude. But talk to most Managing Partners about what's actually working, and you'll hear the same frustration: fragmented efforts, high token consumption, and AI that produces confident output from incomplete information. Claude represents a big opportunity for PE. But to gain competitive edge, focus on what your firm uniquely knows and create the knowledge foundation so you learn from every token you use. That's the core argument Phil Westcott, CEO of Deal Engine, made in a recent interview with [FinTecBuzz](https://fintecbuzz.com/fintech-interview-with-phil-westcott/), and it's one worth unpacking for any firm that's aiming to build durable competitive advantage with Frontier AI. ### The 90% problem nobody talks about Phil spent four years on the IBM Watson team during the first wave of enterprise AI. One thing that became clear early: the technology was rarely the hard part. Data engineering was. In his words, it represented 90% of the challenge of operationalizing AI. That observation hasn't aged. It's become more relevant. Deal Engine is built on exactly the principles he discusses in this interview. We help PE firms integrate their proprietary knowledge and external market data into a single, curated platform, so that the AI working for your team is working from the full picture, not a fragment of it. If you want to understand what that looks like in practice, our guide is a good place to start. It covers the architecture, the use cases, and what it takes to move from piloting to scaling. Download the guide: [Why every PE firm needs a proprietary market data engine.](https://dealengine.tech/resources/new-guide-why-every-private-equity-firm-needs-a-proprietary-market-data-engine) ## Don't miss perspectives like this Sign up to our mailing list to get insights on tech, data and AI for dealmaking efficiency in private equity, corporate finance and M&A markets. ## Your AI is only as powerful as the context behind it Stop layering tools on fragmented data. Turn market data and your own proprietary information into structured advantage to source, prioritize and surface opportunities aligned to your investment thesis. [Explore Deal Engine](https://dealengine.tech/product) ## Related Posts ## Be first to every deal. ## See Deal Engine in action. Discover how Deal Engine is providing private equity firms with the data engineering and AI capabilities fueling their competitive advantage. 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