AI Contract Agents and the Future of Agreement Management

Effective agreement management isn’t just a nice to have — it’s a critical investment for businesses. According to a new Deloitte study, 77% of high-performing organizations credit contract management, enhanced by AI, to their success.

Naturally, every company wants to adopt AI, but complexity can be a barrier. With over two decades of experience pioneering digital agreements, Docusign is uniquely positioned to make AI contract adoption seamless, just as we did with eSignature.

Today we’re introducing the industry’s first purpose-built AI contract agent designed to accelerate workflows, reduce risk, and achieve better outcomes across the entire agreement lifecycle. Instead of contracts sitting in a queue waiting for manual review, Docusign AI contract agents can analyze agreements in seconds, flag risks, and surface issues requiring human expertise — transforming administrative bottlenecks into streamlined workflows that unlock opportunities for growth. 

This breakthrough innovation builds on the Docusign Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform, which enables organizations to create, commit to, and manage agreements through a single, streamlined workflow. Since launching the IAM platform last year, our customers have realized immediate value. Now with AI contract agents, we’re taking a major leap forward, bringing automation to the entire agreement management process.

AI Contract Agents: a smarter way to manage agreements end-to-end

Today’s businesses face growing pressure to move faster, even as complexity and risk increase. Docusign AI contract agents help meet that challenge by eliminating tedious, inefficient work - hours spent searching, reviewing and comparing agreements. Working seamlessly across IAM, these agents automate manual tasks, accelerate key processes, and intelligently connect every step of the agreement lifecycle to uncover new opportunities for growth.

The power of the IAM platform makes it possible for AI contract agents to automate work throughout the agreement lifecycle — from identifying the most urgent tasks and surfacing all related agreements in Navigator, to recommending specific language updates to ensure compliance. Cumbersome tasks that previously took days will now happen in minutes, with AI handling the tedious minutiae of agreement workflows while freeing teams to focus on more strategic work. 

The first Docusign AI contract agents will become available in the U.S. by the end of this year and will start with a focus on procurement and sales workflows, where contract delays and compliance risks can lead to costly disruptions.

Docusign Iris: Agreement AI with purpose and precision

Behind every AI-powered Docusign IAM capability is Docusign Iris, an AI engine powered by Docusign’s unparalleled expertise in contracts and agreements. Iris selects the right agreement AI models for specific use cases — from AI-Assisted review for risk detection to customized insights for complex business needs. This results in more reliable agreement-specific extractions, deeper insights, and automation than generic LLMs can deliver.

With the IAM platform, teams across Sales, Procurement, HR, Legal, and more can streamline the entire agreement process – backed by a strong ecosystem of partners, developers, and customers. And these benefits will soon extend to the public sector. Both Docusign eSignature and CLM are currently FedRAMP Moderate and GovRAMP authorized, and Docusign plans to extend those authorizations to the IAM platform later this year.

Here’s what organizations can achieve with new IAM capabilities:

Create agreements faster

• Agreement Prep: New tools for contract creation and management with dynamic templates that pull in data automatically.

• Agreement Desk: A collaboration space for sales, procurement, and legal teams to track and manage agreement requests and approvals.

• AI-Assisted Review: Beyond basic contract summarization, risk assessment with language recommendations to bring contracts into alignment with company policies.

Commit to agreements in a streamlined and secure way

• Workspaces: A secure, collaborative environment for multi-step agreements like financial onboarding or healthcare intake that keeps all stakeholders aligned with a single, organized view.

• CLEAR Identity Verification: Docusign is partnering with CLEAR to modernize identity verification in agreement workflows. CLEAR’s seamless integration with Docusign — the first time their technology is being used for agreements — gives users a seamless, secure verification experience that’s as simple as snapping a selfie.

Manage agreements with AI-driven insights and tracking

• Custom Extractions: Navigator now supports AI-powered custom extractions, making it possible for companies to customize AI models to easily understand their own agreements at scale, with just a few example contracts. 

• Obligation Management: A new dashboard for tracking contractual commitments, deadlines, and renewals, ensuring businesses never miss a critical milestone.

Learn more about Docusign IAM.