The Challenge of Contract Management
Managing thousands of contracts post-signature is a daunting task for businesses across various industries. Contracts are crucial for strategic initiatives, yet their management remains a significant challenge. Overseeing a large portfolio of contracts, each with unique terms and conditions, is intricate and time-consuming. Poor contract management can cost companies up to 9% of their bottom line in critical business functions like procurement, finance, and legal.
AI-Driven Contracting Solutions
AI-driven contracting is empowering teams to move beyond outdated practices and strategically adapt in today’s commercial landscape. In 2023, Icertis delivered Icertis Copilot, the market’s first generative AI application for enterprise contract management, which has become the fastest-growing product in the company’s history. Built on Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service, Icertis Copilot combines large language models (LLMs) and Icertis proprietary AI models to derive insights from customer data, enabling powerful business outcomes.
Monish Darda, chief technology officer and co-founder of Icertis, emphasizes that commercial agreements are vitally important for enterprises to achieve increased revenue, reduce costs, ensure compliance, and manage risk. The global leader in AI-powered contract intelligence, Icertis has a rich history of AI innovation and has become an established player in the AI market over its 15-year lifespan.
Enhancing Business Relationships through AI
The Icertis platform actively monitors deliverables against contract terms, unlocking the hidden commercial value in contracts. Generative AI’s ability to quickly analyze and summarize key contract provisions has proven valuable for helping businesses get the most out of their agreements. For instance, a Fortune 500 global pharmaceutical company saved $70 million annually by enforcing commercial terms with Icertis for over 250,000 supplier contracts in 17 languages.
Data Security and Trust
Data and security strategy is the top factor influencing trust in AI technology vendors among customers. Icertis has aligned its strategy and principles with Microsoft, focusing on three pillars of security: infrastructure security, platform security, and data protection and compliance. Through its partnership with Microsoft, Icertis safeguards its customers’ confidential information and data with technology that enables the security and reliability that large-scale enterprises need.
The Future of Contract Management with AI Agents
Icertis is now imagining the next stage of AI with agentic workflows that can act as a force multiplier to scale enterprise resources and bring businesses closer to autonomous contracting. AI agents work on behalf of an individual or team to operate and orchestrate business activities within predetermined guardrails and controls. These agents can analyze contracts from multiple lenses, such as obligations, risk, and compliance, and draft analyses and summaries accompanied by tables and visuals.
Sudarshan Chitre, senior vice president in charge of products at Icertis, notes that the company was already well ahead of the curve with deep experience using early iterations of AI. The Icertis team is comfortable working with new technologies and pre-release preview software, having collaborated closely with Microsoft on pre-release versions of new AI innovations.
Embracing AI at Icertis
The adoption of new technologies, particularly AI, requires a company-wide mindset shift. Icertis developers recognized the potential of generative AI to streamline contracting and were eager to experiment. The company’s engineers have benefited from AI technologies like GitHub Copilot for code generation and analysis, and security assessments to drive innovation and efficiency.
As Icertis continues to lead in AI-powered contract intelligence, it exemplifies the tangible business value that transformative AI can offer. Its partnership with Microsoft remains a cornerstone, ensuring that Icertis stays at the forefront of technology innovation for customers worldwide.
