Contract management has evolved so much over the past decade, and the rate of change is only continuing to speed up. From AI to automation, there are a ton of ways that you can apply smarter contract management strategies in your business. Here are some of the main ways that we see technology empowering contract management professionals, trends that are on the horizon, and what you should consider when evaluating a CLM for your business.
Top Contract Management Tools
It would be hard to overstate just how important digital contract management tools are in today’s workflows, and we expect that value to continue growing in the future. Here are some of the top contract management tools we use and why you should start using them if you aren’t already.
Artificial Intelligence
While ChatGPT generated quite a buzz when OpenAI first released it to the public, artificial intelligence is far more than a buzzword in today’s contract management landscape. One of the most popular uses of AI is to quickly search, summarize, and classify information to make it easier for human reviewers to understand the main points of a contract. Using AI for this task alone can save businesses a lot of time and money, but it’s not the only use case.
Another use for AI in the contract management space is taking over data entry tasks. Work that previously had to be done manually to track specific details from a contract across a variety of systems—what money you owe to whom for accounts payable, expense details to finance, etc—can now be managed automatically with AI. Modern large language models can pull specified details from documents with increasing accuracy, so once you have trained one to manage a specific task, it can often carry out that task repeatedly without the fatigue and errors that come with manual review.
Automation Software
Speaking of automation, AI isn’t the only tool that can help you automate your workflow! Contract management automation can offer your entire team a variety of benefits, including:
- Increased Document Security: Make sure your contracts are only accessible to the people who actually need to access them with automated cloud contract management, as opposed to hard copies floating around the office that anyone could pick up.
- Integration with Other Tools: Contract management software can talk with the other tools your business uses to make sure information is always up-to-date, no matter where it’s stored.
- Version History Access: Everyone involved can see each version of a contract while it’s in process, making it easier to track even the smallest of revisions so everyone stays on the same page.
E-Signing Solutions
Gone are the days of having to download, print, sign, scan, and upload documents for each and every signature. Now, e-signing provides a quick and convenient way to let everyone sign contracts, regardless of their location. This is especially valuable because, as remote work gains popularity, more and more people may not be working from a location with a printer on any given day. Offering e-signing options for your vendors and clients helps to prevent any delays that remote work may cause.
Upcoming Trends in Contract Management
The tools we’ve discussed so far make a great foundation for managing contracts well, but the industry continues to improve. Here are some of the topics we’ve seen gaining traction at the start of 2025 and how we expect them to influence contract lifecycle management in the future.
Predictive Analytics
As more companies use AI and machine learning in their operations, they’re able to do more with the data that has spent decades hiding in between clauses of various contracts. Using predictive analytics based on your existing and past contracts can help you to plan for likely negotiation outcomes and identify potential risks before it’s time for contract renewal.
Customized Contracts from Templates
Using contract templates is a valuable way to save time, but contracts aren’t always one-size-fits-all. As contract lifecycle management tools continue to evolve and allow users on both sides to edit a contract to match their unique agreement terms, this is shifting from a perk to an expectation. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel for every contract, but you should have a good understanding of what your non-negotiables are in each contract template and what you can update to better suit your client’s or vendor’s needs.
Sustainability
In addition to the convenience of digital solutions, we expect more people to prefer them based on sustainability. 62% of customers would consider changing their purchasing decisions based on their environmental impact, and those values don’t get left at the door when making business purchasing decisions as opposed to personal ones. From saving the trees by using digital signatures to reducing energy consumption with efficient technology, it’s a good idea to consider the way your contract management impacts the environment and how you might be able to change it for the better.
What to Look for in a CLM Tool
If you haven’t already implemented a CLM in your workplace, or you’re considering changing which one you use, it’s important to have an idea of what you’re looking for before you jump in. Here are some of the things we recommend clients look for in their next CLM:
- Integration with Other Tools: It doesn’t matter how effective a CLM software is if all of that information is siloed off. Make sure your next tool is able to communicate with the other tools involved in the day-to-day operations of your business.
- Customizable Workflows: No two businesses are the same, so of course, they won’t all manage contracts the same. Whether you have an in-house legal team involved in every contract or you’re a small team figuring it out, it’s a good idea to make sure you can customize each workflow to your unique needs.
- Native AI Tools: Many CLMs now offer AI tools as a part of their solutions, making it easier than ever to maximize AI use and streamline your contract management operations. Consider what AI tools each platform offers and whether they are targeting the tasks that take the most time in your business.
These are valuable things to consider, but it’s not an exhaustive list of what you’ll need to look for as you evaluate solutions. To help find the perfect CLM for your business, it’s a good idea to evaluate your CLM readiness and work with a team of professionals to make sure you’re choosing the best tool for your team.
Making the Most of Contract Lifecycle Management Tools
Technology is great for empowering your team to manage contracts more effectively, but you may not be using contract lifecycle management tools to their fullest potential. Often, teams will stop exploring new options once their most frustrating tasks have been streamlined, or the people who need the most help won’t know how to access those solutions in the platform. If you’re paying for all the solutions a tool has to offer, it’s important to make sure you’re maximizing the value your team gets from them.
At Koho Consulting, we help businesses of all sizes make the most of their software of choice by identifying new opportunities for automation, migrating data, and maintaining your CLM on an ongoing basis. To learn more about how your business can make the most of contract lifecycle management tools, get in touch with us today.
