For far too long, contract management has shackled organizations with slow and manual processes, hindering progress and dimming the prospect of success. In fact, inefficient contracting can cause companies to lose up to 40 percent of the value of a deal.
It’s no wonder many organizations have recognized the need for change. By embracing modern solutions and technology-driven approaches, they aim to unlock newfound agility and productivity. One star of that show is AI.
One of the significant advantages of AI in contract management is its ability to speed up the entire process. With AI, contracts can be created in under 5 minutes, drastically reducing the time required for due diligence and enabling faster deal closures.
Let’s discover how AI automates repetitive administrative tasks, freeing your team from mundane work and empowering them to concentrate on innovative strategies that drive your business towards success.
Why speed matters in contract management
With AI, legal professionals can draft, review, and finalize the partnership agreement in minutes, not hours or days.
By acting quickly, you help your sales team gain a competitive advantage by sealing the deal ahead of other potential sellers. As an added bonus, you also mitigate the risk of your company’s client seeking alternative options due to delays.
In addition to seizing time-sensitive opportunities like this one, accelerated contract management enhances customer satisfaction, drives operational efficiency, and fosters overall agility. Organizations that prioritize speed in contract management are better equipped to thrive in today's fast-paced business environment and position themselves for continued success.
Also read: How AI Is Changing Contract Management for Legal Teams
SpotDraft AI in contract management: Speeding up the process
Before we jump in, take a minute to request a demo of SpotDraft so you can follow along and learn how to streamline your contracting process with AI.
#1 Easy due diligence
“Due diligence reviews for a corporate transaction typically involve a bunch of lawyers going through documents (hard copy or in an e-room) looking for litigation issues, key contract clauses (e.g., change of control, assignment, etc.), corporate governance, intellectual property, etc. Generally it takes many hands (usually outside counsel) and many hours/days to complete. AI can do this in a fraction of the time.”
~ Sterling Miller, CEO and Senior Counsel, Hilgers Graben PLLC
Ten Things: Artificial Intelligence – What Every Legal Department Really Needs to Know
Due diligence is one of those crucial yet tedious tasks that nobody likes to do. It involves painstakingly sifting through heaps of extensive documents, searching for vital information, and ensuring compliance with legal requirements. It's complex, elaborate, and let's face it, boring. But, it's an essential part of the contracting process.
Luckily, AI makes due diligence a breeze. You won’t skip the due diligence process but will most certainly finish reviewing faster. In fact, SpotDraft users have recorded a 70 percent reduction in review time. Here’s how:
Simply choose the contract (or contracts) you want to analyze and ask the SpotDraft AI questions on it, in plain English. SpotDraft AI will generate on-the-spot reports to track compliance, understand contract status, provide detailed answers and context, search for specific clauses and related text, and much more.
For instance, you can ask the AI, “Do I have the right to publicity in these contracts?” and get this answer:
This way, you can effortlessly find contracts and information whenever needed, without the hassle of searching through your entire repository. It keeps you prepared for audits and ensures that everyone involved understands the legal implications of their contracts.
Of course, you get more than speed. AI excels at identifying errors, inconsistencies, and potential legal issues within contracts. Its advanced algorithms can perform a thorough analysis, comparing the contract against predefined rules and legal standards. This helps legal teams ensure that contracts adhere to regulatory requirements and avoid potential pitfalls that could lead to disputes or legal complications.
Moreover, AI can significantly speed up the contract review process by automating repetitive tasks. It can highlight changes between different contract versions, flag deviations from standard clauses, and suggest revisions based on previous contract negotiations. This saves time and enhances accuracy, as AI eliminates the risk of human oversight or fatigue.
#2 Contract data at your fingertips
Having quick and efficient access to contract data is essential for effective contract management. And that’s not just talk.
Let's consider an example. A legal team is working on a merger and acquisition deal, and they need to review the contracts of both companies involved. Traditionally, this would involve manually reviewing hundreds of pages, searching for key terms and evaluating potential risks. This painstaking process could consume days of the legal team's time, leaving little room for other vital tasks.
However, with an AI-powered contract management system like SpotDraft, the team can upload the contracts and let AI algorithms do the heavy lifting. The AI algorithms analyze the documents, extract relevant data, and categorize them based on predefined criteria. The legal team can now access the system and quickly locate specific clauses or terms, saving significant time and effort.
What’s more, AI can provide valuable insights and analytics to the legal team. For example, AI algorithms can identify trends or patterns in contract data, helping the team make informed decisions and identify potential risks. This level of analysis and data-driven decision-making would be nearly impossible to achieve manually within a reasonable timeframe.
These benefits sound excellent in writing, but are they as concrete in practice? You can bet they are.
SpotDraft users get an AI-powered repository that automatically captures essential details from contracts, such as dates, currencies, durations, and counterparties. This means users no longer have to manually search through lengthy contracts to find specific information. It saves them time and effort, allowing quick access to essential details whenever needed.
The SpotDraft AI also includes justifications with relevant contract text. This means users can easily cross-reference the critical information identified by the AI with the actual contract text. It streamlines the verification process, ensuring accuracy and reducing the risk of missing critical details. Users can rely on the AI's assistance to quickly validate important information.
Even better, SpotDraft's AI generates precise contract summaries highlighting the document's significant data points. These summaries provide a condensed overview of the contract, making it easier for users to spot trends and patterns. Users can make informed decisions more efficiently and effectively by identifying data trends.
Here’s a three-step process to quickly navigate contracts in SpotDraft:
- Press "Command+K" on Mac or "Ctrl+K" on Windows and other systems when you're in your contracts
- Type the action you want to do in the search bar that appears
- Choose the action you want from the options to start the task
You can read here to learn more on using SpotDraft to navigate contract data.
#3 Instant contract template creation
Creating new contract templates can be a real pain. It's a time-consuming task that requires reviewing tons of legal documents and putting together many sections and clauses.
Instead of spending hours digging through piles of legal jargon and struggling to piece together templates, you can use AI to create your templates. AI tools can analyze lots of data, find the most relevant clauses and sections, and put everything together in seconds.
If you’re a SpotDraft user (and oh, you should be), this is what that process looks like:
- Click on the “New Workflow” button in your dashboard
- Select “New Contracts”
- Pick a template from SpotDraft’s pre-designed library
- Fill in the necessary details
- You can choose to preview your contract with the “Preview Contract” button
Now, your contract is ready, and all it took was five clicks. You can add counterparties, write a quick message, and send off your new contracts.
This video should help put things in a more visual perspective:
Maybe you have your own contracts that you want to templatize. Again, that’s easy with AI. You can use a SpotDraft no-code tool called DraftMate to set up templates in Microsoft Word - and without code or syntax.
Click here to get this add-in on Microsoft. You should see a “Get It Now” button in the next window. Click on the button to install DraftMate.
That’s one way to go. You can also install DraftMate directly from your Microsoft Word app. Here’s how:
- Enter the “Insert” tab on the ribbon
- Find the “Add-Ins” section and select “Store.” This will open up the Microsoft Store
- Type “DraftMate (by SpotDraft)” in the search panel to find the too
- Click on the DraftMate icon to load it in the side panel
- You’ll be asked to sign in. Use your SpotDraft credentials, and, voila, you’re in
With AI doing the hard work of creating contract templates, you can focus your time and energy on the more exciting stuff. You'll have more freedom to negotiate contracts, review essential details, and assess potential risks.
AI frees you up to do the things that matter, instead of getting stuck in the tedious template creation process. Plus, AI makes everything faster and more efficient.
Also read: Generative AI for Contract Management: Best Practices to Ensure Safety
Also read: 8 Top Contract Management Software Platforms
Over To You
“What’s exciting is that now there's a lot of companies, such as SpotDraft and others, bringing in the next generation of technologies. And the people that are designing them actually know what Legal needs, both internally as well as for outside counsel, and are being very sophisticated with it.”
~ Doug Luftman, COO & CLO, ScaleWith
The Key to Success as an In-House Legal Counsel & Leader
AI in contract management is the way forward, and many leading companies are already embracing it for smoother contract processes. Deloitte, for instance, offers comprehensive AI-enabled solutions, combining human expertise with machine collaboration, to achieve better results.
You can join too. Simply request a personal demo from the experts at SpotDraft to learn how AI can accelerate your contracting process and help you close deals faster.
