TechnologySoftwareArticle
- Published
- March 5, 2026
- Author
- Casey Scott McKay
- Reading time
- 2 min
When your coding assistant suggests a snippet, whose license governs it? Diligence teams are rewriting their playbooks. This article explains how AI coding assistants have blurred the provenance of source code and what that means for any transaction where software is the asset. We advise acquirers to update diligence checklists to probe how engineering teams use generative tools. The prudent posture is documentation that turns an unknowable risk into a manageable one.
Provenance Has Become Murky
AI coding assistants have blurred the provenance of source code, raising hard questions in any transaction where software is the asset being bought.
We advise acquirers to update diligence checklists to probe how engineering teams use generative tools and what controls exist to flag license-encumbered output.
Documentation Is the Antidote
The prudent posture is documentation: a clear record of tooling, prompts, and review steps turns an unknowable risk into a manageable one.