Contracting in the Age of AI: Empowering Legal Teams Before and After Signature

LegalOn’s US CEO Daniel Lewis recently hosted a webinar on ‘Contracting in The Age of Artificial Intelligence: The Human AI-Connection’ with Nik Reed, Senior VP of Product and R&D at Knowable. Daniel and Nik have a long relationship, going back to Stanford Law School, where as law students, they founded their startup Ravel Law, a legal search and analytics platform that was later acquired by LexisNexis. The webinar recording can be watched on-demand here.

Now as executives in the world of contract technology – Daniel at LegalOn, where we specialize in pre-signature contract review, and Nik at Knowable, which focuses on post-signature extraction and review – they had a lot to talk about in the evolving landscape of contract review and the role of AI in legal technology. Here’s a recap of the insightful conversation.

The Role of AI in Pre-Signature Contract Review

Daniel kicked off the discussion by diving into the world of pre-signature contract review, which is the phase where legal professionals review contracts during negotiations before they are signed. Traditionally, this process has been manual, time-consuming, and prone to human error, especially with high volumes of contracts or complex agreements. Parties have had to exchange numerous versions of contracts with redlines, and then go through each version manually to protect their interests and sign a contract that best serves their businesses.

AI is now playing a pivotal role in this area by offering efficient and quality-enhancing solutions–such as one-click redlining. While AI is not going to replace the nuanced understanding of seasoned attorneys, it can review contracts quickly, alert reviewers to potential risks, and even offer guidance on how to address specific contract issues. The value proposition of AI tools in contract review is centered on efficiency and quality improvement.

Daniel highlighted that AI tools are continuing to evolve and becoming more versatile. They offer significant value by improving operational costs, turnaround times, and the quality of work. Looking forward, these tools are expected to become even more sophisticated, handling more complex contracts and industry-specific nuances. As AI tools advance, legal professionals will play an important role in establishing risk preferences and preferred language to guide the review.

AI’s Assistance in Post-Signature Contract Management

Nik talked about post-signature contract management. Knowable, as an "Executed Agreements" company, focuses on this post-signature phase, where contracts have been signed, and the challenge lies in understanding, managing, and extracting actionable insights from executed agreements. They use a combination of technology and human review to turn contracts into data, making them more manageable and insightful for large enterprises.

Nik emphasized that the key objectives in post-signature contract management include finding current contracts, assembling contract families (often comprised of multiple documents), tracking changes and evolutions in contracts, and ensuring granular accuracy in contract data.

AI plays a vital role in automating many aspects of post-signature contract management, from identifying entities and key provisions to speeding up data extraction processes. However, human intervention is still essential to verify the accuracy of data. 

AI Adoption and ROI

When asked about building a solid business case for AI adoption in legal processes, both Nik and Daniel emphasized that AI tools can provide a substantial return on investment (ROI) through various factors:

• Time-savings: AI accelerates contract review, reducing turnaround times.
• Quality improvement: AI assists in comprehensive and consistent contract analysis.
• Efficiency: AI enables legal teams to handle more contracts with fewer resources.
• Team and business satisfaction: AI helps reduce bottlenecks and ensures timely contract management.

The Common Goal: Empowering Legal Professionals for Action

Both pre-signature and post-signature contract review share a common goal: enabling legal professionals to take action more efficiently and reliably. AI serves as a valuable tool in achieving this goal by saving time, enhancing accuracy, improving consistency, and ultimately contributing to the satisfaction and skill development of legal teams and their business partners.

As AI continues to evolve and gain acceptance, legal professionals are well-positioned to leverage its capabilities for improved contract management and better business outcomes. To learn more about LegalOn’s AI-powered contract review solutions, request a meeting with our team here.