In case you work in-house and also you’re not treating your vendor contracts like strategic property, you’re overlooking one of the beneficial sources of operational perception. In a current episode of “Notes to My (Authorized) Self,” authorized ops chief Navin Mahavijiyan defined how most authorized groups are sitting on a treasure trove of knowledge with out realizing it, and what to do about it.
Watch the total episode right here:
Contracts Are Extra Than Agreements. They’re Information Units.
Vendor contracts usually stay quietly within the background. They get filed away and infrequently resurface until one thing goes mistaken or a renewal is approaching. However as Navin identified, these agreements comprise essential details about how a enterprise capabilities, spends, and scales.
“One of many issues that I’ve come to be taught in my profession is that managing your vendor, your provider, your subcontractor contracts is extremely essential for the enterprise,” Navin mentioned. “That’s an enormous quantity of spend. With the ability to monitor them — after they expire, when it’s worthwhile to have renewal discussions, or simply the truth that you have got them — is instrumental.”
This isn’t about constructing a greater repository. It’s about turning static paperwork into residing information that helps smarter enterprise choices.
AI Helps, However Solely When You Know What You Want
Navin is a robust advocate for utilizing AI to handle contracts, however with a caveat. He warns towards speeding right into a instrument simply because it will possibly extract plenty of information. The bottom line is readability of goal.
“Once you’re simply beginning out, the standard movement is let’s take our contracts, dump them right into a instrument, and have the seller’s AI analyze them,” he mentioned. “That’s very easy to do. However it will possibly develop into an excessive amount of.”
As an alternative, begin together with your priorities. What do you truly must know to help your small business? Renewal dates? Fee phrases? Auto-renew clauses? Navin recommends constructing a shortlist of must-have information factors first.
“Have your individual guidelines on what information factors you need to gather out of your contracts,” he mentioned. “Then you definitely additionally know what must be skilled into the AI.”
Searchable Is Good. Contextual Is Higher.
Scanning and importing contracts right into a central system would possibly verify the field for “digitized,” however it’s not sufficient. Navin careworn that authorized groups must transcend searchability and concentrate on usability.
This contains establishing alerts, triggers, and workflows that really assist stakeholders take motion, whether or not that’s procurement needing to renegotiate a contract or finance needing to plan for upcoming obligations.
“You should utilize [AI] to research all of the contracts, pull huge quantities of knowledge out of it, make them searchable, and automate alerts and monitoring,” Navin mentioned. “The precise individuals in numerous components of your small business may be notified when one thing so simple as the contract is about to run out, or when language creates threat.”
Not All Contract Information Lives In The Contract
One of many smartest factors Navin made is that a few of the most helpful contract information isn’t within the contract itself. Particulars like vendor contacts, inner house owners, and enterprise context usually stay exterior the doc, however they’re simply as important.
“There are components of the contract data that aren’t within the contract itself,” he defined. “That’s the place AI can’t assist until you construct that into your contract overview course of.”
Authorized ops groups want a course of to seize and affiliate this metadata. Consumption varieties, playbooks, and templates can go a great distance in closing that hole and making the contract lifecycle extra full.
Too A lot Data Can Be Simply As Unhealthy
As contract methods develop into extra highly effective, there’s a temptation to broadcast each bit of knowledge to each stakeholder. Navin cautioned towards this strategy.
“Finance needs to know very various things out of your supply of us or your accounting workforce,” he mentioned. “It is advisable perceive their cadence, how usually they should be notified, and craft alerts which might be strong and distinctive to every group.”
The objective isn’t to make everybody a contract professional. The objective is to ship the fitting perception to the fitting particular person on the proper time.
Authorized Ops Can Lead The Shift
For too lengthy, vendor contracts have been handled like authorized housekeeping. However as Navin made clear, they’re a window into how your small business spends, dangers, renews, and grows. With the fitting mixture of instruments and processes, authorized groups can flip that window right into a management panel.
That is greater than a tech improve. It’s a mindset shift.
The return on funding isn’t simply cleaner data. It’s higher visibility, quicker motion, and larger alignment with the enterprise. Vendor contracts are already sitting there, ready to be unlocked.
Prepared to start out digging?
Olga V. Mack is the CEO of TermScout, an AI-powered contract certification platform that accelerates income and eliminates friction by certifying contracts as honest, balanced, and market-ready. A serial CEO and authorized tech govt, she beforehand led an organization by way of a profitable acquisition by LexisNexis. Olga can also be a Fellow at CodeX, The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, and the Generative AI Editor at regulation.MIT. She is a visionary govt reshaping how we regulation—how authorized methods are constructed, skilled, and trusted. Olga teaches at Berkeley Law, lectures broadly, and advises firms of all sizes, in addition to boards and establishments. An award-winning basic counsel turned builder, she additionally leads early-stage ventures together with Virtual Gabby (Better Parenting Plan), Product Law Hub, ESI Flow, and Notes to My (Legal) Self, every rethinking the follow and enterprise of regulation by way of expertise, information, and human-centered design. She has authored The Rise of Product Lawyers, Legal Operations in the Age of AI and Data, Blockchain Value, and Get on Board, with Visible IQ for Attorneys (ABA) forthcoming. Olga is a 6x TEDx speaker and has been acknowledged as a Silicon Valley Lady of Affect and an ABA Lady in Authorized Tech. Her work reimagines individuals’s relationship with regulation—making it extra accessible, inclusive, data-driven, and aligned with how the world truly works. She can also be the host of the Notes to My (Authorized) Self podcast (streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube), and her insights usually seem in Forbes, Bloomberg Legislation, Newsweek, VentureBeat, ACC Docket, and Above the Legislation. She earned her B.A. and J.D. from UC Berkeley. Comply with her on LinkedIn and X @olgavmack.
