Docusign Reinvents Contracts with AI for Faster, Smarter Business Deals
We all know Docusign as the pioneer of e-signatures. Now, the company is taking things up a notch with a new offering, called intelligent agreement management, powered by AI at its core. Contracts of agreements are central to countless businesses, and this new offering simplifies the process for enterprises in navigating these agreements. Often, companies spend resources in reviewing, managing, and interpreting these contracts, and many times it leads to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and increased costs. “Every company engages with vendors, suppliers, customers, partners, and contractors, handling crucial agreements. Despite the valuable information involved, we often treat it as unstructured data. The lifecycle of creating, managing, and renewing these agreements costs trillions of dollars in business,” Sagnik Nandy, chief technology officer at Docusign, told AIM. AI can identify crucial clauses in contracts and ensure optimal language is used. It tracks renewal dates and involved parties, notifying relevant team members to simplify the renewal process. “AI can turn static documents into actionable assets, adding context and workflows for more efficient and sustainable contract management,” Nandy revealed. AI-Enabled Intelligent Agreement Management Docusign uses a mix of machine learning models, AI models developed in-house, as well as third-party large language models (LLMs). Delving deeper, Apurva Dalal, vice president, technology & India site lead at DocuSign, told AIM, “AI plays a crucial role in three or four key areas. First, it aids in understanding documents by quickly highlighting essential aspects of the agreement for customers. It can also simplify complex legal jargon found in most agreements, making them easier to comprehend.” AI helps summarise documents quickly, providing concise overviews that save time for enterprises. Additionally, it can answer questions related to the content, allowing teams to gain insights efficiently and make informed decisions without sifting through lengthy texts. “Another crucial aspect is understanding the workflow. Agreements involve intricate processes—it’s not just about creating and signing a document. Most situations require back-and-forth communication. We leverage AI to determine the right routing, identify the appropriate recipients ensuring the entire process runs smoothly and seamlessly,” Dalal revealed. Lastly, what enterprises primarily seek when utilising agreement management tools is cost savings along with legal and financial compliance. Docusign uses AI to analyse millions of agreements to identify significant compliance and financial risks through AI-assisted extractions and insights. “With AI, we not only provide these insights but also make them actionable. For example, AI can alert clients if an agreement is nearing expiration and outline the potential implications of its renewal,” Dalal said. Earlier this year, the San Francisco-based company acquired Lexion, an AI-powered agreement management software company, for $165 million. According to Nandy, Lexion’s solutions have been integrated directly with Docusign’s offering. Understanding Diverse Languages Docusign serves customers in over 180 countries, and many of these clients work with documents in languages other than English. The next challenge the company aims to tackle with AI is interpreting agreements written in vernacular languages. “Understanding the language of contracts is a crucial aspect of what we do. We started with the US market but some of our fastest-growing markets are in Asia and Europe. We began with English, but our focus is to go beyond it to the localisation bit,” Dalal said. He further revealed that a lot of Docusign’s efforts have gone into building this capability. Currently, this is what the applied science team at Docusign is working on. When AIM asked whether AI will also play a crucial part as Docusign looks to crack localisation, Nandy said AI is foundational to everything that Docusign does. “From understanding languages to impacting multiple aspects of the agreement process–AI helps refine agreements, analyse existing documents, and make information actionable,” he added. Docusign in India Earlier this year, the company announced the opening of its new office in Bengaluru, which will serve as a technology centre of excellence for the company’s global operations. According to Nandy, Docusign India’s tech teams will take ownership of the entire value chain of product development, from ideation and creation to testing and deployment. “Docusign India’s journey began a little over a year ago, with the core vision of identifying top tech talent in India to drive innovation as the company ventures into the intelligent agreement management space. The goal is to leverage local expertise to enhance the experience for Docusign’s global customers,” Nandy said. In Bengaluru, the company has established a technology centre of excellence for its intelligent agreement management offering. He further revealed that the India team is working on critical aspects such as the data layer, which is essential for extracting information from agreements. “Much of the work related to ETLs, data pipelines, and storage is being carried out in India, along with cloud engineering and infrastructure DevOps,” he concluded.
The company uses a mix of ML models, AI models developed in-house, as well as third-party LLMs.
Docusign is taking things up a notch with a new offering, called intelligent agreement management, powered by AI at its core.
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I have a keen interest in creative writing and artificial intelligence. As a journalist, I deep dive into the world of technology and analyse how it’s restructuring business models and reshaping society.