How to use AI for contract review safely: a workflow for lawyers

What AI is good at, and where it slips

Good at: reading long agreements quickly, producing structured issues lists, comparing versions, summarising obligations and dates, suggesting alternative wording, and checking defined terms for consistency.

Where it slips: cross-references and definitions that change meaning elsewhere in the document, schedules it did not see, deal context it was never told, jurisdiction-specific enforceability, and the most important category of all: what is missing.

Before you start: two checks

1. Is the tool approved for client documents? Use a business or enterprise plan or a legal tool whose terms prohibit training on your data. ABA Formal Opinion 512 indicates informed consent is needed before inputting confidential information into tools that may learn from it.
2. Can you reduce what you share? Replace party names, prices and identifying details with placeholders using our Confidentiality Redactor, then restore them in the output.

The seven-step workflow

1. Brief the AI like a junior associate

Act as a senior commercial lawyer acting for the [customer] under [governing law].
Context: [one paragraph on the deal and the client's priorities].
Our positions: [e.g. liability cap at 12 months' fees; mutual indemnities;
30-day termination for convenience].

2. Ask for a prioritised issues list

Review the agreement below and produce an issues list grouped as High, Medium
and Low priority. For each: clause number, the issue, the risk to our client,
and whether it departs from our positions. Quote the clause text you rely on.
Do not propose wording yet.

3. Check every point against the text

Open each clause the AI cites. Confirm it quoted accurately and understood the definitions and cross-references. This is where most AI errors in contract work are caught.

4. Ask what is missing

List provisions commonly found in a [type of agreement] that are absent or thin
here, and explain why each might matter to our client.

Then run your own checklist. Absence is hard for AI and easy to miss under time pressure.

5. Decide what to raise

This is judgment, not automation: commercial leverage, relationship, risk appetite and market practice for this client.

6. Draft revisions

For issues 1, 3 and 5, propose revised wording that achieves our position,
in the drafting style of the agreement. Show original and proposed text and
explain each change in one sentence.

7. Final review

Read the marked-up agreement as a whole. Check numbering, defined terms, consistency between clauses and that your changes do not create new problems.

Five prompts worth saving

• Obligations tracker: “Extract every obligation, deadline and notice requirement into a table: party, obligation, trigger or date, clause.”
• Plain-English summary: “Summarise this agreement for a non-lawyer client in under 300 words: what they must do, what they get, key dates, how it ends, biggest risks.”
• Version compare: “List every change between these versions and its legal and commercial effect for our client.”
• Definitions check: “List defined terms used but not defined, defined but unused, or used inconsistently.”
• Negotiation playbook: “For each key clause, give our preferred position, fallback and walk-away point.”

More in the Prompt Library.

Choosing a contract AI tool

Word-based assistants suit lawyers who live in Microsoft Word; playbook tools suit teams with standard positions; lifecycle platforms suit in-house teams managing volume. Browse options in the legal AI tools directory and run every vendor through the due diligence questionnaire.

The bottom line

Let AI do the first read and the drafting legwork. Keep the decisions, the context and the final read for yourself. That is what clients pay for, and what professional rules require.

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This article is general educational information, not legal advice. Rules differ by jurisdiction and change often; check the primary sources and your own professional rules before relying on it.