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A streamlined and secure contract work is indispensable for the progress of companies and legal AI has arrived to become an indispensable tool for this purpose. From supplier agreements to employment contracts, contracts are the documents that underpin the day-to-day activities of a business and protect its interests and those of its stakeholders. However, managing contracts is no easy task. Legal departments face the immense challenge of reviewing and validating large volumes of documents in tight timeframes, which increases the risk of errors, inefficiencies and problems.
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Have you ever felt that your working day is not long enough to check everything in detail, despite your extended time in front of the computer? Let us tell you that you are not the only one and that it is not only due to a lack of working hours, it is a structural challenge. In the business world, every minute counts and not having an effective strategy to manage contracts with agility can put any legal team and the business at a disadvantage.
The good news is that technology has advanced and, with it, new solutions have arrived. One of the most prominent of these is legal AI, which is useful and practical for streamlining contractual processes. In this article, we'll show you how you can integrate legal AI into your department and streamline your contract review.
In this article you will find out:
- What is Legal AI?
- How to Use Legal AI to Help You Review Your Contracts
- Legal Prompting Tips for Reviewing Your Contracts
- Benefits of Legal AI in Contract Management
- Just a Matter of Time
What is Legal AI?
Legal AI is a branch of artificial intelligence designed to perform repetitive and analytical tasks in the legal field. Rest assured, as we have discussed in previous articles, it is not here to replace lawyers, it aims to be a tool, a complement to help automate those tasks that are time-consuming but fundamental to legal activity, such as contract review.
Imagine you receive an urgent email from the purchasing department: they need you to review a contract with a key supplier to close an important deal. And they need it now (like all the other requests you receive). Your schedule is full and you don't have the time to dedicate to a detailed review. Instead of spending hours and hours reading every clause, the AI can analyse the contract in a few moments, identifying inconsistencies or problematic clauses that could jeopardise the deal. With just a few clicks, it provides you with a clear summary of critical points and potential risks, allowing you to respond to the procurement department quickly and accurately. So you can make informed decisions without delay, ensuring that business moves forward without compromising legal certainty.
How to Use Legal AI to Help You Review Your Contracts
Using legal AI to review contracts is much easier than it sounds. Once you have chosen a solution that suits your team's needs and is secure, with transparent data processing methods and compliant with information and personal data security measures, you only need to integrate your contracts into the system and rely on this tool for different tasks:
Automation of repetitive processes:
Forget about manually reviewing all clauses and terms. The AI can determine whether these conform to the established standards or if there are any discrepancies.
Risk identification:
AI can identify problematic clauses, vague or inconsistent terms and alert you to potential risks before they become real legal problems. This technology can serve as an early warning so you can act more quickly and safely.
Creating legal opinions in seconds:
Another key advantage of legal AI is its ability to generate legal opinions quickly. If you are asked for an urgent legal opinion on a contract, AI can process the document, assess the legal risks and generate a response in a matter of seconds. This allows you to get a head start on delivering a clear and concise analysis without having to spend hours on in-depth reviews, speeding up decision-making.
Legal Prompting Tips for Reviewing Your Contracts
Legal prompting is the use of artificial intelligence guided by specific instructions to solve or analyse legal issues. It is based on providing prompts or clear indications to an AI model, guiding it on how to perform the tasks the user wants. In most cases, prompts for legal AI tools are provided via text and chat. In this way, a quality prompt makes it easier for the result provided by the AI to be tailored to your specific needs.
Here are some basic tips to keep in mind when using AI to review your contracts in order to get the most out of it:
- Define your legal priorities: before starting the review, it is essential that you define the most important aspects to be considered by the AI. For example, expiry terms, termination conditions or indemnity clauses.
- Create an automated review protocol: set clear rules for the AI. Ask it to highlight key terms, unusual clauses or any sections that do not comply with your company's internal policies.
- Review AI suggestions: While the legal AI can do much of the heavy lifting, it is always a good idea to do a final check to make sure everything is aligned with the contract objectives and there are no errors.
- Check out our guide to optimising your legal prompts for generative AI, with key steps and tips to boost your use of this tool.
- Bonus: opt for a well-trained AI. Every AI model requires training to deliver the best results. Choose an AI that is fed with adequate legal information, including examples of previous contracts that have been successful or problematic. The AI will learn from these patterns and apply that knowledge in future reviews.
Benefits of Legal AI in Contract Management
The benefits of incorporating legal AI into contract management are manifold, but here we will highlight the most relevant ones for in-house lawyers and legal managers:
Time and resource savings:
By automating an important part of contract review, your legal team can finally see the light, clear their email inbox and focus on more strategic tasks. This not only increases productivity but also optimises the use of resources.
Risk reduction:
Legal AI is designed to catch errors that might go unnoticed in a quick, rushed, time-poor manual review. By identifying these potential risks before they become legal problems, you reduce the likelihood of litigation and penalties.
Improved decision-making:
With the information and analytics provided by AI, you can make more informed decisions based on data, not just assumptions or previous experience. This gives you a competitive advantage in negotiations and legal strategies.
Just a Matter of Time
Generative legal AI is here to revolutionise the world of contract management. Integrating AI into your legal department will not only allow you to streamline contract review but will also give you a strategic advantage in terms of efficiency and risk reduction. It is no longer a question of if you should implement this technology, but when!
In today's dynamic business world, where time is one of the most valuable assets, you cannot afford to be left behind. And legal AI is the key to moving towards more efficient and accurate contract management. So, if this article has got you thinking about improving contract review in your company, why not take the next step?
We invite you to explore Bigle Legal's AI-powered Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform, which can help you optimise your legal workflow. Request a demo and discover how technology can transform the way you manage your contracts.
Ask for a demo with one of Bigle Legal's legal operations experts.
