Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial contracts are time-consuming tasks—whether you are working on a Non-Disclosure Agreement, License Agreement, Master Service Agreement, Merger & Acquisition, or a Multi Supplier Framework Agreement. Often, corporate legal departments may explore alternative legal service providers to reduce the burden of rote document review. However, artificial intelligence (AI) offers an in-house solution that automates the process of drafting and negotiating commercial contracts. 

An AI-powered contract review and negotiation platform enables legal departments to manage a high volume of contracts that require frequent modifications. Below, we’ll examine how innovations in AI legal technology can  streamline and accelerate the review and negotiation process for commercial contracts.

Finding the Right AI for Your Legal Department 

In the current landscape of AI-powered contract markup technologies, many companies promise significant results but fail to deliver. While these legal tech companies may utilize proprietary technology for contract redlining, they are unable to harness the power of machine learning and apply it to the contract revision and negotiation process. To realize the greatest gains in productivity and efficiency, make sure you choose a leading-edge contract negotiation platform that not only flags problem areas but also seamlessly integrates AI suggestions into the contract language. 

Transitioning to an AI Digital Playbook

Powerful AI contract negotiation software may be equipped with best practice negotiating knowledge for most contract types, but you will also want to optimize that knowledge with your specific playbook guidance. Consider some of the important information the AI can glean from your uploads:

• Ambiguous drafting language.
• Unnecessary language or provisions.
• Standard spellings, headers, and date formats.
• Deviations from playbook standards.
• Successful language from prior contracts.
• Clauses that have historically resulted in negotiation bottlenecks.

By deploying your own AI Digital Playbook and uploading sample contracts to train the AI, your legal department can focus on higher-value strategic goals while securing smarter contract drafts and faster negotiations through AI-leveraged review.  

Drafting and Negotiating Commercial Contracts with AI

An AI contract negotiation platform allows users to review a new contract by simply emailing the document for AI review. The AI scans the contract for important terms, clauses, and provisions before performing attorney-quality markups. 

In addition to performing an initial review of the contract, the AI can also analyze changes and comments made by the counterparty during the negotiation process and either accept and assimilate the revisions or flag them as outliers that need further attention. 

Further, by monitoring the contract revisions accepted by junior members of the legal team or other reviewers, the AI can automatically notify senior-level attorneys or corporate executives if playbook parameters are breached. Throughout the process, the legal team can apply updates to contract language or playbook standards across the portfolio. 

Of course, even the most sophisticated AI-powered technology will need a human partner to handle some escalations. In cases where a senior lawyer’s discernment and expertise are required, the AI can provide insights derived from past negotiations to assist the attorney. After identifying a potential risk or escalation, the AI can analyze the contract repository and provide tailored recommendations. 

AI Increases Productivity and Reduces Costs

AI legal tools that automate and streamline the process of drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial contracts enable corporate legal departments to save time and money on routine contract review while freeing attorneys to focus on higher-value tasks. Likewise, legal departments that outsource contract review services can save on the fees associated with alternative legal service providers by transitioning to an efficient, cost-effective, and secure in-house contract review and negotiation process. An in-house contract negotiation platform that leverages AI technology can enable corporate legal departments to scale their contract review process and close deals faster without hiring and training more attorneys. With the right AI-powered platform, contracts that once required days or weeks to review and negotiate can now be completed in mere minutes or hours.