There continues to be tremendous upsides… to improve results, speed up processes, and reduce costs in your enterprise by applying AI skills to contract lifecycle management.
Cimplifi
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become embedded in how legal teams operate today. A report by Cimplifi, The Expanding Influence of Legal Operations, explores how AI, CLM, and legal operations are converging to reshape contracting. Legal operations teams sit at the center of this shift. They streamline processes, manage budgets, and ensure legal workflows align with business goals.
Almost two-thirds of legal ops teams report having 5 to 10 professionals. Their role continues to expand as they bridge the gap between legal and the rest of the organization.
CLM vs. AI-powered CLM
What makes AI-powered CLM different?
- CLM systems bring structure to contracting. AI-powered CLM builds on that by adding automation and speed to existing workflows.
- AI-powered playbooks can reduce time spent on contracting processes by 24%, helping teams move faster from draft to execution.
- Faster contracting cycles can support faster revenue realization.
- AI-powered CLM assists in reviewing and redlining contracts in minutes, reducing manual effort and helping limit human oversight errors.
Contracts don’t just belong to legal
Contracts sit at the intersection of legal, finance, procurement, and business relationships. According to JD Supra, they are not owned by legal alone.
Legal ops teams step in to manage this shared ownership. They align contracting processes across functions, ensuring that every stakeholder works from the same structure, timelines, and data.
AI-powered CLM systems support this collaboration by bringing contracts, workflows, and visibility into a single system so that legal is no longer chasing information across teams, and the business isn’t operating in silos.
How Legal Ops incorporates AI-powered CLM
What was earlier considered nascent is now seeing steady and more widespread adoption, as legal ops teams become more familiar with how AI applies to contracting.
Cimplifi reported that 14% of legal ops teams were somewhat familiar with AI in CLM. This awareness continues to grow as legal ops teams build internal understanding and use cases.
5 benefits of AI-powered CLM
- Streamlining contracting processes and improving how agreements and obligations are managed.
- Reducing manual review effort through automation and structured workflows.
- Extracting contract data more efficiently by reducing time and resource-intensive manual work.
- Automating renewal processes to improve speed and consistency.
- Generating reports, contract analytics, and actionable insights.
Legal ops teams are turning contracting into a coordinated, data-driven function. AI-powered CLM strengthens that shift by adding speed, structure, and visibility to the process.
LegalEase supports legal ops teams across the full CLM journey — from platform selection and contract structuring to implementation, migration, and adoption.
Explore how our attorney-led, AI-powered approach helps you build a CLM system tailored to your business.
