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Time to say Yes! to a new era of contracting

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Bernadette Bulacan on why the rise of AI agents is a welcome invitation to innovate

The legal sector is no stranger to disruption. From the rise of e-discovery to the proliferation of legal tech startups, innovation has reshaped how lawyers work, how firms operate, and how clients engage. But the emergence of autonomous systems capable of executing complex tasks with minimal human intervention marks a new inflection point—one that goes beyond automation and into transformation.

Contracts offer a prime opportunity for legal teams to transform their business with artificial intelligence (AI) because contracting remains one of the last manual processes in a company—from request to drafting to execution. While contracts contain rich data that drives better business decisions, the pain point for legal teams isn’t the data itself; it’s the operational complexity, the repetitive manual work and siloed systems. As a result, AI agents are already reshaping the contracting landscape in tangible ways to redefine how commercial agreements are created, managed and enforced.

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Switalskis—Naila Arif, Harriet Findlay & Ellie Thompson

Switalskis—Naila Arif, Harriet Findlay & Ellie Thompson

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Ward Hadaway—Matthew Morton

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Thomson Hayton Winkley—Nina Hood

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