Category: Artificial Intelligence

ReviewAI Tools Revolutionized with ReviewAI Smart Checklists

Posted on May 11, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management

It’s no secret that in-house lawyers have too much to do and too little time to do it, making contract review tools a necessity, not a luxury. So, how can contract AI help in-house lawyers? They often have a long list of what they want and need from AI and technology that includes:

  • Eliminating painful, repetitive and non-complex work
  • Freeing up time to focus on strategy and high-value work
  • Increasing the quality of contract review
  • Working faster and handling higher volumes of work

With these priorities in mind, Onit launched contract AI tool ReviewAI seven months ago. ReviewAI does the repetitive work that lawyers want to streamline so they can concentrate on more strategic contributions. It reviews, redlines and edits all types of contracts in less than two minutes, including NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, purchase agreements, employment agreements and more. In addition, its Microsoft Word Add-In enables lawyers to work the way they are accustomed to working.

Now, Onit has announced a substantial enhancement to ReviewAI – Smart Checklists. It’s contract AI that goes beyond alerts and does the work.

Keep reading to learn more, view a demo here or you can hear Jean Yang, Vice President of the Onit AI Center of Excellence, explain it in the latest episode of our Onit podcast.

Contract AI That Goes Beyond Alerts – It Does the Work

Smart Checklists, offered as part of the ReviewAI Word Add-In, evolves contract review tools by turning playbook checks into intelligent and collaborative tasks. It tracks what’s important, what to do next and what is done – all in an intuitive solution that requires no training.

How does it work? Open a contract, and ReviewAI has Smart Checklists ready to go.

As a result of this contract AI tool, lawyers save upward of 52% of their time on contracts, while legal teams improve consistency, lower contract risks and better support the business.

Making ReviewAI Tools Smarter

Lawyers have always worked off of some sort of checklist during contract reviews. The problem is that the lists often only exist on a piece of paper or in someone’s head. They’re static.

ReviewAI Smart Checklists uses AI to create checklists made up of concrete, task-based actions that are generated from your company playbook. Rather than going through the tedious undertaking of applying that playbook yourself, ReviewAI digitizes it for you automatically. If you need to break your contract review into multiple sessions, ReviewAI and its Smart Checklists remember where you left off and make it easy to keep track of where you are, what’s been done and what you still need to do.

How to Get Started with ReviewAI Smart Checklists

Onit’s ReviewAI Smart Checklists, a revolutionary approach for contract review tools, is available immediately.

To learn more, you can:

Legal Industry News: Current News and Trends for Legal Operations Resources, May 2021

Posted on May 6, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management

Welcome to our May run-down of legal operations resources, where we share with you some of the most pertinent and timely articles for industry news. We hope this roundup provides some valuable takeaways.

In today’s lineup, we feature insights about how platform technology is transforming legal operations, the benefits of CLM and AI for the Lenovo legal department and new CLOC leadership.

#1

How Platform Technologies Enable Enterprise Collaboration For Corporate Legal Departments

Legal departments no longer function as black boxes within organizations. Today’s legal department regularly engages in cross-collaboration with all departments across the organization, typically with a high level of transparency. Along with the increase in collaboration has come a greater expectation that legal departments will heighten the level of service they provide and demonstrate the value they bring to the business.

Platform technologies are making it possible for legal departments to meet these expectations. Many organizations have replaced stand-alone software and solutions with a platform approach that allows companies to streamline processes across the organization and empowers legal departments to better connect with other departments. The article provides an in-depth discussion of the benefits of platform technology and essential tips on how to pick the right platform.

 (Source: The Impact Lawyers)

 #2

What’s Fueling Transformation in Corporate Legal? A Leading Operations Expert Explains.

The legal industry is primed for transformation, not unlike that seen in healthcare two decades ago, according to Brad Rogers, SVP of Strategy and Growth for Onit and former Chief Operations Officer and Chief of Staff for Advocacy and Oversight at a Fortune Global 100 company. Leaders in law are now thinking differently about how to drive efficiency, effectiveness and value. The transition – which was happening well before remote working – is accelerating, with new operating models that are built on what he sees as the four major drivers of change in the industry. You can hear Brad discuss these factors in this podcast.

(Source: Onit podcast)

#3

CLOC, One of the Leading Legal Operations Resources, Welcomes a New President 

The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) announced a shift in leadership, with Mike Haven assuming the role of President on May 1. Haven has been a board member of CLOC since March 2019.

According to Haven, “I will continue to build on our commitment to support the entire legal ecosystem and foster a more diverse, inclusive, efficient and innovative culture.”

Haven is currently the Head of Legal Operations and Associate General Counsel for Intel, with prior law and legal ops experience that includes roles at K&L Gates LLP, NetApp and Gap Inc. He has long been active in the CLOC community, advocating for unity in the legal industry to overcome obstacles to progress.

As a reminder, the CLOC Global Institute starts on May 10. You can sign up now to join discussions on everything from the state of the industry to advancing the strategic direction of a corporate legal department and beyond.

(Source: CLOC)

#4

The Future of Contracting: CLM Automation with AI at Lenovo

Contract lifecycle management (CLM) software and AI continue to transform legal operations by allowing for faster and more efficient contracting processes – something that can benefit every company out there. The combination of CLM and AI also allows organizations to enhance risk and spend management, improve revenue and profit margins and increase visibility into counterparty relationships.

Companies that are looking to reap the benefits of digital transportation can learn from those who have successfully undertaken the transformation journey before them. In a recent webinar for the World Commerce and Contracting Association, the Lenovo Legal Department provides an important touchstone for legal operations resources by describing how they did just that, laying out the crucial factors that led to success and the ability to improve efficiency by 30% with contract AI.

(Source: Onit)

#5

Law Firm (Mostly) Goes Meeting-Free to Address Fatigue

It’s no secret that nearly everyone across the legal industry is suffering from at least some level of burnout after the past year. But what can we do about it?

For Dentons, one idea has been to place a pause on meetings for a week to allow employees to either take time off or play catch-up. The no-meetings week, which occurred the last week of April, applies to standing meetings but not to project and client deadlines. It’s not the first time the firm has tried this approach – they had a similar no-meetings week in December 2020. While the larger question remains as to whether the move is enough to combat a year of pandemic-related stress, the pause is an excellent recognition of the past year’s unique demands.

(Source: ABA Journal)

Get the inside track on legal operations resources and trends, the very best events and helpful content from the legal community by joining Lean Into LegalOps today. The program provides members of the legal community with a forum to share and learn from one another via webinars, debates and weekly catch-up calls. Visit this page to join.

Three Examples of In-House Legal Operations Excellence

Posted on May 4, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Contract Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Legal Management

It’s no secret that in-house legal operations faced a 2020 that was anything but business as usual. As the pandemic stretched on for far longer than anyone expected, companies found new ways to do business, accommodating employees who were now working from home and implementing technology solutions that would streamline processes and replace manual tasks and in-person activities.

In-house legal operations professionals took the lead at many companies to figure out how to see organizations through the pandemic. In some cases, this meant overhauling processes and procedures that had been in place for years or even decades. Simply put, legal operations teams became the masters of the new normal.

Following are three examples of how legal operations flipped conversations from uncertainty to success during challenging times.

1. Building a Technology Roadmap for Legal Success

Even the world’s most well-established corporations faced unprecedented challenges and found new ways to surpass them.

When the pandemic hit, fast-food giant McDonald’s made responding to it and helping employees adapt top priorities. The McDonald’s in-house legal operations department placed other company goals aside if they didn’t immediately contribute to its crisis response. Their first step was to survey the organization’s various business and legal teams to identify their technology needs and wish lists. From there, legal operations created an aspirational roadmap for getting the most effective technology into the hands of the company’s global teams.

Three overriding needs emerged from the survey:

  1. A rebalancing of workloads
  2. A reduction in workloads
  3. A means for self-service

Using sophisticated platform technology, the legal operations team created systems to address each of these needs – ones that were flexible enough to quickly respond if needs shifted or changed. At the end of the day, a platform approach allowed McDonald’s to build the workflow and collaboration solutions needed to respond to the COVID crisis and keep the company moving forward.

To listen to the McDonald’s story, visit here.

2. Embracing Enterprise Legal Management

Handling domestic business was hard enough for most companies during the pandemic. But corporations with an international presence faced additional unique challenges – especially if they didn’t have the right technologies.

Jaguar Land Rover North America (JLRNA) is a perfect example. As a multinational corporation, JLRNA routinely has to respond to international legal service requests. Unfortunately, though, they lacked the technology to do it efficiently during the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.

JLRNA’s in-house legal operations team acted quickly to implement a sophisticated enterprise legal management solution that was customizable, allowing them to track and manage all the different areas of the company in the ways they needed to. Within the enterprise legal management system, they also created a document repository for storing contracts and capturing contract data and a system for submitting legal service requests. By replacing rudimentary matter management processes with an ELM solution, JLRNA legal operations provided the company with a seamless transition to a new way of doing business that could adapt.

You can hear JLRNA share their journey in this podcast.

3. Adapting Existing Solutions to Meet New Problems

Much of the focus in discussing how organizations navigated recent challenges has been on the adoption of new technologies. For some in-house legal operations, though, the answer was to leverage tools and solutions that had already been implemented. That was the case for publishing company Pearson.

Pearson had already implemented a comprehensive contract lifecycle management (CLM) solution to help contain costs. In 2020, that CLM solution served as the foundation for Pearson’s legal department to create the Transaction Services Center (TSC), an effective means for handling high-volume, low-risk standard agreements. This freed up internal counsel to focus on more complex agreements and activities that helped support the business. Having a comprehensive CLM solution enabled Pearson to better handle legal service requests, review and approve contracts, and respond to legal advisory requests, at the same time achieving savings, increasing efficiency and gaining unprecedented visibility into contract portfolios and internal workloads. The results were so impressive, Pearson won the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Value Champions Award.

You can hear Pearson’s story here.

No one can predict for sure when the pandemic and its effects on business will end. Until it does, in-house legal operations professionals will continue to play a crucial role in guiding their organizations to success. The stories above are just a few perfect examples of how ingenuity and technology make that possible.

You can read more about corporate legal departments transformations in this eBook:

Lean Into LegalOps: The Ultimate Guide to Legal Operations in the New Normal and Advice from Transformative Corporate Legal Departments.

With the Rising Use of AI In Legal Services, What Should In-House Counsel Look For?

Posted on April 28, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Contract Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Legal Management

The increased use of AI in legal services is indisputable. Analysts predict that corporate legal departments will see technology budget increases as significant as three times by 2025 and an ongoing push to automate legal work for productivity. With its ability to bring immediate results out-of-the-box and learn and improve over time, AI offers the ideal technological solution to boost efficiency and save time for high-performing legal departments. In fact, this study found that AI for contract review can increase productivity by 51.5%.

However, not everything that claims to be AI these days is actually AI, and not all AI solutions are created equal. AI can significantly boost efficiency, streamline workflows, and save costs – if you invest in the right AI solutions.

Given the tremendous benefits of AI technologies, it’s helpful to understand the features that set the best AI tools apart from the competition. When you’re looking to purchase AI solutions and transform your legal department, you should consider whether they offer the following characteristics and features.

Time to Value

When you invest in new technology like AI, you want to start reaping the benefits as soon as possible. Therefore, when looking at AI options, you want to find solutions that allow you to quickly begin realizing value after you implement them.

Several factors can decrease the amount of time it takes to realize value from an AI solution. The software should be quick and easy to implement and roll out across all your users. Your AI should also ideally be pre-trained, meaning it’s ready to go straight out of the box, rather than requiring additional time to train it. The faster your users can capitalize on all the benefits of your AI solution, the faster it will translate into value for your organization.

Pricing Structure

Technology vendors take a wide range of approaches to pricing their products, and how they price them can significantly impact their value and usability for your enterprise. As the use of AI in legal services increases, the last thing you want to do is agree to a pricing structure based on the number of users.

When the price of your AI solution is not based on user numbers, you have the option of using the technology to work across all business units in your organization without having to worry about incurring extra costs when additional collaboration would be valuable. The ideal solution will have no limit on the number of users who can interact with the system for the initial price of your investment.

User Experience

Like any technology, AI is only valuable if your users can use it effectively. Any solution you choose should be easy to understand and execute without excessive training or a steep learning curve. Look into whether the product you’re considering has a proven implementation department.

The right tools will also have a good track record in the customer satisfaction department. It’s worthwhile to look into the vendor or product’s Net Promoter Score (NPS). An NPS is based on customers’ ratings of their likelihood of recommending a company, product, or service on a scale of 0 to 10 – so the higher the NPS, the better.

Underlying Platform

Any AI solution you purchase will have to operate on some underlying platform to function. At a minimum, that platform should be a trusted product that has the capacity necessary to meet all your needs and the ability to scale as those needs change.

Even better is not having to rely on external platforms for your chosen AI solution to work. The ideal tools will run on a reliable platform supplied and maintained by the same vendor as the AI solutions themselves. This will allow you to deploy products and updates quickly. Also, look for no-code platforms that will enable you to build your own apps with little or no technical experience.

Immediate Usability

A solution is only helpful if your users actually use it. It’s also most helpful if they can start using it right away. Long implementation delays or the need to invest significant time in learning to use a product can outweigh the benefits that product might eventually offer.

You should look for out-of-the-box products that require minimal configuration before they can be used in order to get the full use of AI in legal services. Such products are ready to go almost immediately, meaning you can quickly start using them to address the problems that drove you to seek out AI in the first place. At the same time, however, they can also be customized to meet the most simple or customized workflows within your organization.

Partner Network

While the vendor of your chosen AI solution certainly matters, so do your vendor’s partnerships. You want a technology provider that partners with other top-notch providers and professionals who can address your needs outside of those related to the specific AI technology you’re buying.

You want your AI product vendor to have alliances with experienced implementation service providers to ensure that your chosen solution succeeds across your entire enterprise. Beyond implementation, your provider should also be part of a robust ecosystem of partners who can address your needs as they arise, from the most routine business needs to the most novel demands that might arise. Having the right partnerships also means that your vendor can leverage those partnerships to design the most optimal solutions to address a particular problem.

The Use of AI in Legal Services – Investing in the Right AI

The excitement about AI is understandable – today’s technologies can accomplish tasks that seemed impossible even just a few years ago. Wanting to incorporate those advancements into your organization to improve the ways you do business is a great impulse.

You need to be sure, however, that you’re getting products that are effective and not just hype. Even more importantly, they must be tailored to your organization’s needs if you want to see actual benefits from them. Not every AI solution is suitable for every organization, and not every AI provider will give you the support you need for your products to succeed.

By considering the factors outlined above before you purchase any solution, you’ll put your organization on the right path to genuinely benefiting from AI. It’s worth the time to do your research and think before you buy.

What the Future With AI Looks Like for Enterprise Legal Management: InvoiceAI Coming Soon

Posted on April 13, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Company News and Events

As technology continues to evolve, many in-house counsel and legal professionals wonder what their future with artificial intelligence (AI) looks like. Will legal AI technology replace lawyers? Will it make work easier or more complicated?

Fortunately, we already have indicators of legal AI success. It’s providing commendable results in contract lifecycle management, accelerating contract approvals by up to 70%. Now, AI is also enhancing enterprise legal management software.

InvoiceAI, the new, AI-enabled invoice review solution for enterprise legal management, is coming to Onit and SimpleLegal next month. It lets corporate legal departments leverage the power of AI to boost efficiency in invoice review drastically. When InvoiceAI does a first-pass invoice review, in-house counsel reset their activities to review only the invoices that genuinely need their attention. This frees them up to focus time on more critical, higher-value work that helps the company succeed.

The Future with Legal AI Technology for Legal Operations

More and more companies are incorporating the benefits of AI in their workflows every day. In their annual global survey on artificial intelligence, The State of AI in 2020, McKinsey & Company found that half of their respondents had adopted AI in at least one function in their organizations. The survey also found that companies were increasingly using AI as a tool for generating value, particularly in the form of revenues.

Recent research from Gartner agrees. According to Gartner, by 2023, having AI will be a substantial competitive advantage for companies, bringing a 30% increase in efficiency to document completion and contract negotiation processes via AI-enabled contract lifecycle management tools. They also predict that, by 2023, 90% of multinational global enterprises will be investing in those solutions, as will 50% of regional midsize businesses.

What do these AI advantages look like when quantified?

Onit conducted a study of its ReviewAI software to quantify the time and cost savings for its pre-signature contract review AI software. The study found that lawyers were 51.5% more productive when using ReviewAI than when working manually. The percentage of productivity increased the more proficient they became with the tool.

To illustrate this benefit, consider that a typical midsize company in the United States employs 28 lawyers and reviews 4,850 contracts annually. With ReviewAI, each of these lawyers can unlock capacity – 51.5% more – and that same team of 28 lawyers can now process 2,498 more contracts annually.

That’s the same as adding nine lawyers to the team.

A Better Way to Review Invoices

The competitive advantage that AI has brought to functions like contract lifecycle management is now coming to invoice review. With InvoiceAI, general counsel and in-house counsel will finally be able to stop wasting precious time on tedious invoicing tasks. While legal AI technology handles your first-pass review, you can focus on more important things.

Onit’s founding principle is to help lawyers more effectively practice law, and InvoiceAI is a critical new tool to make that goal a reality.

AI-enabled legal invoice review from Onit and SimpleLegal will be available in May 2021. To learn more about InvoiceAI and how AI can improve your legal invoice review, contact Onit today or email [email protected].

What to Look For in Enterprise Legal Management Software

Posted on April 8, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Enterprise Legal Management

Enterprise legal management software turboboosts legal operations and brings new levels of operational efficiency to corporate legal departments. A comprehensive solution that combines e-billing, matter management and legal service request intake into a single, streamlined platform provides a game-changing way to analyze legal spend, minimize company risk and drive process efficiency.

All these benefits are only possible, though, if you find the enterprise legal management software (ELM) that can support your corporate legal department and its unique needs. Finding ELM software that meets the following criteria will put you on the path to success.

  • Future-Proof Functionality: You don’t want your enterprise legal management software to run on a platform with limited capabilities. Look for an ELM that runs on its own business process automation and business intelligence platforms that can accommodate the department’s future technology needs for AI, contract lifecycle management and legal holds. The workflow integration between products will be native and much more robust this way, compared to multiple systems on different, poorly integrated platforms.
  • Good User Experience: You want your ELM solution to be easy to use, with a modern interface and experience that gets users up and going quickly. You also want it to be something people enjoy using. Look into your product or vendor’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) – a rating of how likely customers are to recommend a company, product or service on a scale of 0 to 10. The higher the NPS, the better.
  • Enhanced collaboration: Prioritize no-code platforms for your enterprise legal management software, as they allow you to build whatever apps you need for your corporate legal department – even if you have little or no technical expertise. For example, the Onit Nation (our customers, partners, business analysts and developers who use Onit platforms) has developed more than 5,500 Apps. These Apps do everything from automating government regulation reporting to managing trade association approval to streamlining the trademark renewal process and beyond.
  • Flat Pricing: Speaking of collaboration, consider the pricing structure for ELM solutions. You want to avoid ELM solutions that are priced based on how many people use the software. Per-user pricing limits how you can use your solution, forcing the choice between cost and collaboration. When that choice is no longer needed, you can work across business units, automate requests and increase transparency and trust.
  • System of Engagement: Traditional ELM vendors take a data collection-minded approach to managing matters and legal operations. Their technology platforms act as a system of record but are rarely used by lawyers and legal operations managers to deliver any real strategic value. Look for a vendor that offers an ELM system of engagement. This process-driven solution integrates workflow and collaboration and allows you to define the legal business processes that are critical to your organization.
  • Partner Implementation Network: While your vendor is key to a smooth implementation, so is their partner network. Your ELM provider should have an experienced and professional partner implementation network made up of strategic alliances that will ensure success across your entire enterprise.

Interested in learning more about enterprise legal management software, platforms and optimizing technologies? Check out our guide to platforms or our breakdown on driving efficiency in a post-pandemic environment.

To learn more about how ELM from Onit can transform your law department operations, contact us or schedule a demo today.

NDA Automation: Get Better, Faster NDAs With the Help of Artificial Intelligence

Posted on April 1, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are some of the most commonly drafted agreements at any company. While they may be common, however, that doesn’t mean they’re unimportant – in fact, they’re critical to protecting a company’s business strategies and trade secrets.

Most companies use the same form NDA in almost every situation, changing only party names and the description of the confidential information involved, leaving the rest of the agreement to a series of standard terms. This means that, even though they’re important, NDAs are very repetitive and routine in terms of drafting.

Corporate legal departments have long been bogged down in routine contracts. Preparing NDAs can take up a significant amount of lawyers’ time, taking them away from other important work that can bring more value to the organization.

The routine nature of NDAs makes them a prime candidate for contract artificial intelligence. With the combination of AI and contracts, business users can engage in risk-free self-service to review and redline NDAs in less than two minutes. This frees up your legal staff to focus on higher-value work that helps support and grow the business.

Contract AI for NDAs and NDA Automation

AI is changing the game when it comes to routine contracts like NDAs. With AI, you can increase the speed of contract preparation and review while at the same time reducing your risk.

Onit’s ReviewAI software employs AI to quickly and accurately draft, review, redline, and edit all types of contracts, including NDAs, in a matter of minutes. ReviewAI isn’t just for those with legal training – non-legal business users can use ReviewAI to receive reviewed, redlined, and approved NDAs via email or a self-service portal in less than two minutes. This self-service option removes a huge burden from legal’s shoulders, freeing up valuable time for more complex legal matters.

For lawyers and contract professionals working on NDAs, ReviewAI offers a Word add-in that offers more hands-on functionality. The add-in automatically drafts, reviews, redlines and edits your NDAs against corporate standards. You’ve likely invested time in crafting standardized language for your NDAs and defining exactly what constitutes confidential information and how it’s to be treated. ReviewAI will learn those terms and customize them based on user feedback, making your NDA applicable to whatever scenario you’re addressing at a given moment.

ReviewAI is a game-changer because it contains NDA automation. The software empowers legal departments to review contracts 60-70% faster. It also leads to a 51.5% increase in user productivity, which is critical for making the most of your resources at a time when legal departments are under increased pressure to do more with less. With Review AI, it takes two minutes or less to review and redline a contract and also offers:

  • Contract summaries that identify a risk profile, issues, and recommendations after contract review
  • AI-assisted contract redlining that automatically generates track changes and commentary in either Word or PDF
  • Contract review templates for customizing contract review and ensuring corporate standards are being met
  • Automated alerts that use contract review templates to automatically flag key contract issues and suggest proper edits
  • Customizable clause library where you can create unique company clauses or leverage over 2,600 clauses created by legal experts
  • Enhanced navigation that helps you quickly jump to key legal concepts, clauses, and terms
  • Seamless integration with Onit’s Contract Lifecycle Management solution or third-party CLM tools

ReviewAI handles the entire pre-signature phase for NDAs. This dramatically reduces your contract lead time while decreasing your legal costs.

NDAs Made Simple

NDAs and other routine, repetitive contracts shouldn’t take attorney time and focus away from higher-value legal work. Tools that combine AI and contracts to produce NDA automation take these time-consuming tasks off your lawyers’ plates and also empower your business users to engage in self-service without increasing risk.

Contact Onit today to learn more about how ReviewAI can help with NDAs and other routine contracts.

Legal Industry News: Current News and Trends in Legal Operations, March 2021

Posted on March 31, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management

Welcome to our March industry run-down, where we share with you some of the most pertinent and timely articles on legal industry news. We hope this roundup of legal industry trends provides some useful takeaways.

In today’s lineup, we share insights about how Lenovo uses AI and automation for contract management, legal technology trends from Gartner and how leaning into communications and leadership traits exhibited by women can enhance collaboration between lawyers and clients.

#1

 An AI Checklist for Every Phase of Contract Lifecycle Management

Contracts are the main source of risk and obligations for corporate legal teams, and if not managed properly, they can lead to a whole host of complications and business failures. The right contract lifecycle management (CLM) tool allows you to modernize the way you deliver legal services, automating and standardizing processes to create a single point of truth for all your contracts.

Nick Whitehouse, general manager of Onit’s AI Center of Excellence, tackles the latest in legal industry news by sharing a checklist for contract AI, covering all phases of CLM. The article includes considerations for both the pre-signature and post-signature contract management phases, including topics like the importance of pre-trained AI, how a CLM solution can turn contract data into actionable intelligence and the overall benefits of contract AI.

(Source: Lexology)

#2

Are You AI-Certified? According to Experts, You Might Want to Look Into that.

While AI solutions are often touted as the solution to human error and bias, the data underlying those tools can contain just as many biases. Problematic data means problematic results, and even potential liability.

One current initiative is trying to change all that by empowering attorneys to give their clients reliable and substantive advice about the AI tools they’re considering using. The University of Toronto’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society has partnered with AI Global, a nonprofit focusing on advancing responsible and ethical AI, to create a certification project for lawyers looking to help their firms implement AI tools or advise their clients about AI. The goal of the new program is to create an international framework of AI across a number of industries that is fair, ethical, and responsible, eliminating bias and privacy breaches.

(Source: ABA Journal)

#3

Five In-House Legal Tech Trends from Gartner

In recent years, automation and other technologies have emerged as the obvious solution for beleaguered legal departments that are under constant pressure to cut costs and boost efficiency. While the legal industry has historically been resistant to technology, things have slowly been changing. When the pandemic hit, legal departments shifted gears. As a result, they’ve been able to discover the many benefits of incorporating and embracing technology to achieve business outcomes.

The trend toward widespread technology adoption is only expected to continue. Gartner recently predicted five trends we should expect to see in legal tech in the coming years:

  • By 2024, 20% of generalist lawyers in corporate legal departments will be replaced by nonlawyer staff
  • By 2024, 50% of corporate legal departments’ work related to major corporate transactions will be automated
  • By 2025, corporate legal departments will triple their spending on legal technology
  • By 2025, at least 25% of corporate legal application spending will be on nonspecialist technology providers.
  • By 2025, corporate legal departments will have only captured 30% of the potential benefits of their CLM solutions

 (Source: Gartner)

#4

Look to Women to Advance Success and Collaboration in the Legal Industry

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Women’s Network of the Legal Value Network’s shined the spotlight on what makes women leaders successful and how adopting feminine leadership and communication styles can benefit law firms by advancing collaboration between lawyers and clients.

Female leadership has really risen to the occasion in the face of the pandemic’s challenges, largely because traditionally female leadership qualities – compassion, humility, and collaboration – have been what companies have needed to thrive despite uncertainty. “The qualities that make women great leaders through times of crisis are also what make them great leaders every day,” says Shelley Zalis, CEO of The Female Quotient and founder of The Equality Lounge.

(Source: Legal Value Network)

#5

The Future of Contracting: CLM Automation + AI Transformation at Lenovo

Every legal department can benefit from more efficient processes. Technology is the key to making that possible. The World Commerce and Contracting Association recently held a webinar that looked at the Lenovo legal department transformation journey, highlighting how Lenovo successfully built a strategy for an effective global rollout of contract lifecycle management technology that relied heavily on AI.

Key themes of the webinar included:

  • Lenovo’s CLM evolution and transformation roadmap
  • Multi-year goals related to their contract management technology
  • Why the culture must eat change management for breakfast
  • The benefits and ROI of a single CLM platform

You can watch the entire webinar to learn how AI is driving the future here.

(Source: World Commerce and Contracting Association)

Bonus Resource: Lean Into LegalOps

Get the inside track on corporate legal and operations trends, the very best events and helpful content from the legal community by joining Lean Into LegalOps today. The online forum lets Onit customers and other members of the legal community share and learn from one another with webinars, debates, weekly catch-up calls and more.

The Future of Contracting: CLM Automation with AI at Lenovo

Posted on March 30, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Company News and Events

Every company can benefit from faster and more efficient contracting processes, such as CLM software automation and AI, that enhance risk and spend management, improve revenue and profit margins and increase visibility into counterparty relationships. In a recent webinar for the World Commerce and Contracting Association, the Lenovo Legal Department described a transformation journey that can deliver value to any business.

The webinar paints a picture of the ideal overall transformation of the legal function, going from a bespoke system of subject matter experts to a legal function that combines that bespoke talent with standardized operations and digital efficiencies. The result is a legal department that’s digital, scalable and value-driven. This is achieved through the right combination of contract lifecycle management (CLM) and artificial intelligence (AI).

The Pillars of Lenovo’s CLM Automation and AI Journey

Lenovo identified three ideal outcomes that guide contract management transformation.

  1. Centralize – Your organization should have a single legal team – not geographically, but operationally. Centralization enables agile support for both the legal function and the enterprise as a whole. It also allows the legal function better flexibility to support new business areas and a greater ability to align resources with tasks.
  2. Standardize – Once you’ve centralized your legal function, you want to create and reinforce standardization across all activities. This includes enhanced and consistent documentation, harmonized workflows and standardized R&Ps for legal and other stakeholders in the organization, among other things.
  3. Digitize – A modern legal function is built around system-based workflows with increasing automation. Digitizing increases visibility into the E2E process and improves your reporting capabilities. It has also proven crucial for helping businesses navigate pandemic disruptions, thanks to solutions like CLM with e-signature capabilities.

Improving Efficiency by 30% with Contract AI

"It's not just a matter of looking at the CLM system and the capabilities. It’s really understanding the journey that you're going to go through and having the right partner to be with you. For us, we needed flexibility. We needed to have strategic discussions with stakeholders at our partners' organization, both from Duff & Phelps and Onit. When we were selecting our [CLM] solution, those were key elements.”AI is critical to the CLM automation process, according to the Lenovo team, because it not only improves the efficiency of the work, but it’s also actually doing some of the work for you. AI-powered CLM software helps remove the productivity bottleneck that plagues many areas of the legal function today.

While CLM software and AI have already established a strong foothold in legal departments across the country, their prevalence is only going to grow in the coming years. By 2023, Gartner estimates that 90% of multinational global enterprises and 50% of regional midsize organizations will have invested in CLM solutions, and that AI will bring 30% more efficiency to the contract negotiation and document completion processes in organizations that deploy leading CLM solutions.

CLM handles your contracting from end to end, starting with legal review intake and leading you through redlining, drafting and negotiation to approval and execution, and finally creating a repository and empowering intelligent reporting to support informed decision-making. CLM with AI does all those things even more accurately and efficiently.

The panel walked through the major goals of any successful CLM automation and AI program:

  • Faster and cheaper contracting
  • Enhanced risk management
  • Data analytics
  • Visibility
  • Revenue and profit improvement
  • Spend management
  • AI capabilities

Additionally, the webinar highlights a number of key themes that are critical to anyone on the CLM transformation journey, including:

  • Lenovo’s CLM evolution and transformation roadmap
  • Multi-year goals related to their contract management technology
  • Why the culture must eat change management for breakfast
  • The benefits and ROI of a single CLM platform
  • How AI is driving the future for its enhanced vision

Download the webinar here to learn more about Lenovo’s strategy for a global rollout of CLM technology and why AI is key to the services delivery model of the future.

Ten Things to Look For When Choosing a Legal Platform

Posted on March 23, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management

Legal platform technologies have proven invaluable for helping corporate legal departments adroitly navigate the ups and downs of the past year. Thanks to the flexibility, customization, unlimited scalability and limitless building opportunities they offer, no-code platforms have provided legal departments with the tools they need to innovate and adapt to meet change after change.

Perhaps you’ve already decided that a platform approach is right for your legal department. How do you know how to pick the right one?

What to Look for When Buying a Legal Platform

Here are ten things to consider when choosing a legal platform to meet the unique needs of your corporate legal department.

  1. Enterprise-wide solution development

The ideal online platform will give you the ability to create all the solutions you need for day-to-day operations, both within your legal department and in any department across the organization, allowing for cross-collaboration between all departments.

  1. Agile project management

The right platform will be able to adjust and evolve as your department’s and organization’s needs change. When considering a platform, make sure it continually releases updates, so you know you’re always incorporating the most up-to-date security standards and user feedback in the solutions you create.

  1. No-code technology

You shouldn’t have to be a technology or coding expert to reap the benefits of an online platform. Many platforms today are no-code, bridging the gap between business and technical users. This makes it simple for anyone in the legal department to build new workflows, even if they have little or no technical training.

  1. Quick realization of value

With any business change or new technology, the faster it can start creating value, the better. A legal platform that allows you to quickly build solutions from day one lets you start realizing value for your organization almost immediately.

  1. AI and automation

The platform you choose should ideally incorporate the power of automation and artificial intelligence to eliminate time-consuming and costly manual legal processes. You’ll also benefit from continuous learning, which automatically examines and adjusts business process rules and workflows over time, even predicting necessary changes before they arise.

  1. Third-party integration tools

While it’s critical that you’re able to build whatever solutions you need on your platform, it’s equally important that those solutions are able to connect to the other tools you use every day. The ideal platform will include a third-party integration tool that seamlessly moves data between all your systems and acts as a centralized hub for your operations.

  1. Robust business intelligence tools and analytics

Today’s legal departments are sitting on more data than ever before. It’s time to make that data useful. Your platform should integrate robust business intelligence tools and analytics capabilities that empower you to leverage your data to make valuable, informed business and legal decisions that will benefit the entire organization.

  1. A responsive user interface

For a long time, technology struggled to find a way to be suitable for viewing on all devices. Instead, what you saw varied depending on your screen size or resolution. Enter responsive user interfaces, which adjust your content according to the device that’s being used, so your users can always view the content as you intended it to be viewed.

  1. An adaptive end-user experience

Adaptive platforms offer multiple layouts in order to provide the best possible experience for your end users. An adaptive platform will detect where your user is accessing it and automatically provide the most appropriate layout for that user’s situation, role, or activity.

  1. Best-in-class partner programs

The best technology providers should be partnered with the best talent, resources, and experience in the industry. Your platform provider should give you access to a top-notch partner network where you can get whatever help you need with technology, implementation, or services in order to maximize your investment.

Onit’s legal platforms, business process automation platform Apptitude and AI-based business intelligence platform Precedent, help corporate legal departments adapt and innovate to meet whatever challenges arise. Contact us today to learn more about how a platform approach can benefit your corporate legal department.

For fmore information on how to choose the right platforms to benefit your corporate legal department, consider these resources: