Contracts power nearly every business transaction, but the work behind them can slow companies down and quietly drain revenue and margins.

• From repeatedly negotiating the same terms across agreements to missing renewal deadlines, critical information is often buried in contracts and disconnected workflows, making it difficult to effectively manage key terms and obligations.

Now, AI is changing that equation. AI contracting tools help businesses move beyond just signing agreements to actually understanding their terms, identifying patterns, and ultimately accelerating decisions and automating the busywork that follows. This creates real-world positive impact to the bottom-line.

The challenge: Contracting involves multiple teams, time-consuming reviews and manual coordination. Legal teams assess contract language, procurement tracks supplier commitments, and sales coordinates approvals.

• When these processes operate separately, businesses risk delayed deals, missed renewals, and overlooked obligations.

Why it's important: Contract AI can contribute to the bottom-line. It creates opportunities to turn contracts into actionable business information, helping teams move faster while maintaining human oversight.

• For sales: Automating routine contract creation and approvals can help reduce administrative bottlenecks and accelerate revenue recognition.
• For procurement: Better tracking and management of key contract terms and obligations can help companies avoid missed renewal deadlines and unnecessary costs.
• For legal: Identifying frequently negotiated terms and flagging nonstandard clauses can help improve templates and playbooks, reducing repetitive work and freeing up time for higher-value priorities.

From electronic signatures to intelligent contracts

Docusign, known for electronic signatures, can now run the entire contracting process using its AI-native platform: Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) and Iris, Docusign's AI engine built specifically for contracts.

Here's how: IAM brings contract creation, review, signature and ongoing management into smarter, connected workflows.

• Create and collaborate: Prepare contracts using templates and business data, while Agreement Desk coordinates requests, reviews and approvals.
• Review and negotiate: AI-Assisted Review compares language against company standards, flags issues and suggests revisions for human review.
• Sign: Docusign eSignature lets teams send, sign and track agreements electronically.
• Manage: Agreement Manager uses AI to surface important terms, renewal dates and obligations from signed contracts.

Plus, plus, plus: Iris, Docusign's AI engine built specifically for contracts, powers an assistant that helps employees find contract information and initiate actions using everyday language.

• Iris agents can automate tasks such as contract intake and renewal preparation, with people setting rules and approving actions where needed.
• Dynamic worksheets can analyze thousands of contracts simultaneously, identifying patterns and potential risks.

An example: A legal team could use AI-Assisted Review to compare an incoming statement of work against company standards, flag nonstandard clauses and suggest revisions.

Once approved, the agreement can be executed using Docusign eSignature. Agreement Manager can then surface key terms, such as material obligations and renewal notice dates, helping teams coordinate follow-up work.

Similarly, procurement teams can use Iris to identify supplier renewal deadlines in time to negotiate a new term.

What this looks like in practice

Businesses are already seeing how connected agreement management can decrease costs by accelerating contracting, reducing administrative work and improving oversight.

The results: At Thrive Market, a membership-based online grocer with more than $900 million in annual revenue, a three-attorney legal team faced a challenge: supporting rapid growth without slowing business operations.

• Using Docusign IAM, Thrive Market introduced three self-service workflows, including automated NDAs and influencer agreements. Requests that once took multiple days can now be completed within a day, saving both time and money.
• Centralized requests and a searchable repository give merchandising and finance teams visibility into contract status, agreements and renewals.

Another example: At The Estée Lauder Companies, approximately 12 to 15 business units independently managed Docusign accounts, creating fragmented oversight and inconsistent support.

• The company consolidated those accounts into one Docusign IAM platform, standardizing access, training and support across brands and regions. Centralized reporting now provides visibility into agreement activity, helping teams monitor usage and manage resources.

The consolidation delivered 20% cost savings over three years while simplifying contract management for employees.

The next phase of contracting

Looking ahead: As AI moves from answering questions to completing tasks with agents, contracts could become more than documents to sign and store, and instead become sources of new free cash flow from realized savings

Docusign is also extending contract capabilities into other AI applications through its Model Context Protocol Server, designed to connect contracting intelligence and workflows with tools employees already use like Claude, ChatGPT, Slack, Gemini Enterprise, and Microsoft Copilot.

The takeaway: By connecting contract information with business workflows, Docusign aims to help teams spend less time coordinating approvals, tracking obligations and risks, and searching for information, and more time making decisions, serving customers, and strengthening business relationships.

Explore how Docusign is transforming contract management.