At Weagree, we are always incredibly curious and fascinated when it comes to contracts. A contract brings about everything of our expertise, skills and, above all, our passion.
Agreements as 11 pieces of art
The deeply intriguing aspects of a contract are:
- Drafting a contract is an art: the art of writing. The art of writing as opposed to painting, sculpturing, dancing, playing music: a way to express yourself creatively.
- Contract drafting as a super-skill: the challenge to be super-efficient in bringing a message across (how do two or more parties relate to each other – whether contractual words are clear and precise, or ambiguous – in der Beschränkung zeigt sich erst der Meister (dare to delete)).
- What do parties need (to be written out) to be fully aligned on their relationship or on a single transaction? Deviation from rules (rules of grammar, as clarity might not tempt a verb or sentence-subject).
- The puzzle (or sport) of discovering ambiguities in any given contract.
- Contract as a means (as in: a way of communicating) for two or more parties to get aligned on a common goal.
- Contracts as part of a process (contracting), and enjoying process.
- Contracts as part of a business portfolio (a portfolio that tells a story, of an entire business’ well-being, and organise each party’s behaviour, rights, obligations, assumed risks and required level of compliance): how to oversee the contracts’ portfolio adequately, hence be able to manage the organisation’s business?
- Contracts as a living document: how do contractual stipulations relate to the parties’ (contrary) behaviour?
- Contract as a foundation to organise a group of people (e.g. in an international joint venture), versus ‘articles of association’ that establish a corporate structure – how do the two compare, and how do they bind the parties involved?
- Contracts and contracting as ways to bring harmony (‘create contracts, not war’ – it takes two to tango).
There are many more reasons why contracts are so fascinating. There are many, many aspects to reflect upon. Even between girlfriend-boyfriend, husband-wife (or same-gender), how does their relationship compare to principles underlying a business relationship, and vice versa?
Agreements in the age of AI
Now that Weagree is so deep into AI (AI-automated contract review, AI-driven contract-tasks extraction, AI-based data extraction, AI-supported contract risk assessment, et cetera), and the world is so excited about agentic AI or generative AI, I sometimes wonder what the function of a contract is. Does AI reduce contracts to a medium containing data?
In the world of AI, it is important that contracts are consistent. It is increasingly important for data analytics if the data are in one single place (and not intrinsically contradictory or inconsistent). An abundance of data may help more than a minimum set of data. Metadata about data are a means to retrieve insights. Too many philosophical aspects of a contract (e.g. hidden, unexpressed feelings or ambiguities that are born in compromise) do not support an exciting use of AI: they obstruct the greater opportunities AI would bring.
AaA (agreements and AI)
Agreements will not lose any of what makes them so intriguing. The persons involved in a contract are not robots but people. People like efficiency as much as contributing personally for the better. Wherever there are people interacting, they communicate, compromise, value each other’s culture and individuality, each other’s mission and ambitions.
Contracts and contracting serve their own purposes. AI has become an additional part, a newcomer in what agreements entail. Contract law has not fundamentally changed and will not change at its foundations.
It would be good if AI automates much of the slow, manual work so that lawyers can fulfil their role as dealmaker, gatekeeper, facilitator, watchdog, supervisor of ethics, artist, risk manager, preventer of short-sightedness, policy-interpreter and what have you (?!). …if a lawyer can accelerate AI by securely orchestrating a corporate’s data (?!)
…if a lawyer can focus on making sure that:
- The organisation’s rights, obligations, risks and compliance requirements are ALL anchored in a contract.
- That all contracts flow land in one single place (needless to say: Weagree’s CLM), where all data lands – a single source of truth (synced or in any event integrated with other enterprise-grade applications).
- That all such data can be searched, analysed and repackaged, in acceleration of how people work together.
…and become a winner in the organisation. So for Weagree, as a legal innovator: to add point 11. to the above list:
11. Contracts as part of a contract-lifecycle, as a piece of art in a CLM that all stakeholders adopt.
