How AI Improves the Efficiency of Everyday Tasks

Legal teams have long relied on manual processes for contract management, compliance tracking, and risk assessment. These traditional workflows are time-consuming and prone to error. They also create unnecessary bottlenecks that slow down business operations. 

As the demands on legal departments grow, many legal professionals are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline tasks and reduce routine, manual work so they can focus on more strategic matters. Below, we explore five ways AI increases efficiency in everyday legal work, helping legal departments stay agile, responsive, and cost-effective.

Automating contract review and analysis

Contract review has traditionally been one of the most time-intensive tasks for legal professionals. Whether assessing contracts for compliance, identifying potential risks, or ensuring consistency across agreements, manual review is slow, expensive, and susceptible to human error. AI-powered contract analysis significantly accelerates this process.

AI-powered contract analysis tools scan and extract key clauses, obligations, and risks, enabling legal teams to review large volumes of contracts in a fraction of the time. Instead of sifting through hundreds of pages, lawyers can focus on flagged areas that require attention. AI can also detect deviations from standard terms, reducing the risk of errors that could lead to disputes or non-compliance. Additionally, AI can detect trends across an organization’s contract portfolio to proactively identify recurring risks, optimize negotiation strategies, and address compliance concerns.

Streamlining contract research

Legal professionals frequently spend hours searching for relevant past agreements to inform their decision-making. AI-powered tools simplify this process by retrieving relevant legal precedents, summarizing key information, and surfacing applicable contract language.

For instance, instead of manually combing through vast contract repositories, legal teams can use AI-driven search functionality to locate the exact clauses or agreements they need. AI-powered tools understand context and intent, deliver relevant, useful results in seconds, reduce delays, and accelerate decision-making.

Enhancing contract management

Legal teams must track contract versions and approvals, manage renewal deadlines, and ensure compliance with key obligations. When done manually, these tasks are overwhelming and can lead to missed deadlines, bottlenecks, and compliance risks.

AI-driven contract lifecycle management (CLM) solutions reduce contract turnaround times while giving legal teams better control over their agreements. For example, they can automate document drafting, approval routing, and renewal tracking. Legal teams can generate contracts using pre-approved templates, ensuring consistency and reducing the time required for negotiations. AI can also monitor contract performance, alerting teams to upcoming deadlines and obligations.

Predicting legal outcomes and reducing risks

Legal risk assessment has traditionally been reactive, with teams identifying potential issues only after they arise. AI can use historical data to predict risks before they escalate. For example, AI can analyze past contract disputes, litigation outcomes, and compliance issues to flag high-risk clauses, indemnification concerns, and ambiguous language that could lead to legal challenges.

Legal teams can also use AI to continuously assess agreements for compliance with evolving regulations, rather than waiting for manual audits, reducing the risk of regulatory penalties and contractual disputes. With real-time risk insights, legal teams can approach negotiations deeper in understanding potential pitfalls, improving decision-making and strengthening contract terms.

Improving collaboration and client services

Legal work is rarely done in isolation. Contracts and compliance initiatives require coordination between legal, sales, finance, HR, and procurement teams. When legal workflows are inefficient, bottlenecks develop, leading to delays that can hurt revenue generation, hiring, and vendor relationships.

AI-powered workflow automation strengthens collaboration by seamlessly moving contract requests and approvals across departments. For instance, legal teams can implement automated intake processes that prioritize contract requests based on urgency and complexity. Real-time dashboards provide visibility into contract statuses, allowing all stakeholders to track progress without relying on email.

Automation also extends to self-service capabilities, allowing business teams to generate routine agreements, such as nondisclosure agreements, without legal intervention. Self-service reduces the workload of legal professionals while ensuring compliance.

AI is the future of legal efficiency

Integrating AI into legal workflows is no longer optional—it’s a strategic necessity for modern legal teams. In-house legal teams that adopt AI-driven legal technology today will be better positioned to manage risk, scale operations, and drive efficiency in an increasingly competitive legal landscape.

See how the AI-powered LinkSquares platform helps legal teams reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and accelerate contract workflows—freeing legal professionals to focus on more complex, strategic tasks and deliver greater value to their organizations.