Humans and AI: The Contract Management Power Couple

World Commerce & Contracting (WorldCC), a global membership association dedicated to helping organizations achieve high-performing and trusted trading relationships, released their insightful report, "Humans and AI: Together, Transforming Contract Management.". The report, in partnership with Agiloft, the global leader in data-first contract lifecycle management (CLM), dives deep into the dynamic relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and human expertise in commercial and contract management, offering a clear roadmap for organizations to strategically harness the power of AI for superior contract outcomes.  

The report argues that the most effective commercial and contract management strategy involves a powerful partnership between humans and AI. It meticulously analyzes the complexity, frequency, interconnectivity, and cost of failure associated with various commercial and contract management tasks to provide a practical framework for businesses. This framework helps pinpoint where AI can deliver maximum efficiency and valuable insights, while highlighting the enduring importance of human judgment. Key insights from the report include:

• AI is ideally suited for automating high-frequency, low-risk tasks like compliance checks, metadata extraction, and template generation, allowing commercial and contract professionals to concentrate on more strategic initiatives.  
• In more complex areas such as negotiations, risk assessment, and dispute avoidance, AI acts as an intelligent assistant, identifying patterns, flagging risks, and modeling alternative scenarios, but ultimately requiring human interpretation and validation.  
• The report emphasizes that "Al isn't here to take your job. It's here to take the parts of your job that slow you down", highlighting AI's role as an enabler for commercial and contract professionals.  
• Organizations that thoughtfully embrace AI, aligning it with their strategic goals and upskilling their teams, will be the ones to "generate value and, where appropriate, gain a competitive edge".  
• The report stresses the importance of minimizing "fragmentation costs" – inefficiencies that arise when AI-generated outputs require significant human intervention – by implementing AI in a way that seamlessly integrates with existing workflows.  

"The relationship between humans and AI in contract management is no longer a theoretical debate – it's actively shaping how organizations operate," states Tim Cummins, President, World Commerce & Contracting and author of the report. "Our research, combined with Agiloft's practical insights, offers a framework to strike the right balance, ensuring businesses leverage AI for efficiency and insight while preserving the critical role of human judgment in managing these vital business assets."  

Andy Wishart, CPO, Agiloft, commented, "This report underscores the transformative potential of AI in CLM. By focusing on a data-first approach, Agiloft empowers organizations to intelligently automate key contract processes, augment human capabilities, and ultimately unlock greater value from their agreements."

The report concludes with actionable steps for organizations looking to integrate AI into their contract management processes. These include mapping AI application areas, selecting the right AI-enabled CLM systems, redefining the role of the contracting discipline, establishing robust governance, and fostering a mindset that embraces AI as a value driver.

About Agiloft:

As the most trusted global leader in data-first contract lifecycle management (CLM) software, Agiloft connects contractual commitments to real business outcomes using its flexible data-first agreement platform (DAP). With contract data as the foundation, customers quickly and collaboratively reach agreement and leverage contract visibility to thrive with competitive advantage. Employing powerful, pragmatic artificial intelligence as a legal force multiplier, and robust integration capabilities as a data liberator, organizations around the world trust Agiloft’s proven implementation team to deliver connected, intelligent, and autonomous solutions across the entire contract lifecycle. With a 99.6% implementation success rate, it’s clear why some of the largest companies choose Agiloft to unlock the value of contract data and accelerate business.

Website: www.agiloft.com