New year, new CLM: Your AI-enabled contracting future

According to a collection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) studies gathered by National University, more than 77% of companies are either using or exploring the use of AI in 2025.  

Are you ready for the change? 

As AI continues to grow in the daily use of both our personal and professional lives, those trends are set to increase this year. Most companies actively have an AI initiative within their 2025 plan now, but where exactly are they looking to incorporate AI? And how do you ensure your business, or your current contracting process, is actually prepared for an AI-enabled workflow?  

Why AI is important for your contracting in 2025 

We’re all using different elements of AI in our daily lives already, and the businesses that want to stay ahead know how important it is to find ways to leverage this technology themselves in both their standard operations and offerings. At a glance, AI is a no brainer. You’re looking at improved efficiency and productivity through automation, simplified tracking and decision-making from data-driven insights, and so much more. And, with the way that AI is expanding, your business will fall behind if you don’t incorporate it.   

But the search for and implementation of AI can feel like a roller coaster, with one of the universal questions remaining the same: How and where do we start?  

AI can be intimidating – and what we’re seeing now is a gap between possibilities and actual usage. While vendors are advertising revolutionary “sky is the limit” AI capabilities, customers and potential customers are questioning how to apply “anything is possible” to their very real standard operating procedures. The paradox of choice has companies in an AI paralysis – if I can do anything, then I don’t know what that thing should be. So, if AI is an important initiative for your company in 2025, start thinking of how exactly you want to use it – what are those mundane, or repetitive, or even “I wish I had time to do that” tasks that immediately come to mind? Those are the ones you want to throw at AI.  

Answering leaderships’ questions about AI  

Let’s go through some of the top questions you might hear from leadership about incorporating AI, whether in general, or specifically within your contracting process. 

How do we choose a vendor?  

This is an interesting question, as there has been a rise in AI-specific companies over the last 5+ years. We come back to the overarching goal of your organization’s unique AI initiatives. If you’re looking to implement AI across your organization, then maybe an AI company is the way to go. However, it’s important to note that those companies tend not to be the subject-matter experts in any one business function or procedure. So, if you’re looking to add AI within your contracting workflow, go to the contract experts.  

What are the risks associated with implementing AI, and how can we mitigate them? 

In the grand scheme of things, AI can still be seen as being in its infancy compared to its full potential. With that in mind, it’s important that as you’re evaluating providers, you take a close look at data privacy policies, potential bias in AI models, and their plans on continuous testing and improvement in such a rapidly evolving space.  

For example, tools like Agiloft’s ConvoAI Document Q&A allows any user with access, whether they’re part of the legal team or not, to ask questions of and about a contract. This tool provides exact references within the document where answers were generated, instilling confidence in the tool itself.  

What’s the ROI for AI-powered contract management software? 

This is where that focus comes in: AI can transform your contracting process, but every company’s process is different, so let’s think about how AI can make a difference for you. 

• Are you experiencing long contract-cycle times? Maybe initial review, redlining, and creating contracts is where AI will work best in your contracting process. With these tools, AI can help create playbooks and clause libraries from previously-used and approved contracts, perform initial contract review based on a set of standards you set, and even redline those documents accordingly.  

• Don’t want to fully rely on AI for redlining? Let this tech provide a risk score for incoming documents and use smart workflows to route them to the proper dedicated team member.  

• Legal team spends way too much time finding old contracts, tracking renewals, or even answering contract-related questions? These are all simple, yet specific contracting tasks that can be improved with an AI-empowered process.   

Conclusion 

The biggest takeaway? You and your leadership team need to keep in mind that AI is truly what you make of it, and it works best when you know exactly what you want it to do.  

So, before you start 2025 by asking “How can I use AI?”, let’s ask a few other questions first:  

• Where are contracts spending the most time in their lifecycle?  

• How much time is my legal team spending answering questions?  

• I’ve been meaning to (insert initiative here) forever… can AI help?  

• Do I need an AI expert or a SME for my field or problem?  

At Agiloft, we’re the contracting experts, and we know AI can improve your contracting process. See how!