How AI Is Transforming Procurement Contracting

Procurement has always lived at the intersection of risk and reward. For decades, it’s been the force behind supplier relationships, cost control, and operational resilience. But in today’s global environment, where the complexity of managing supplier agreements has exploded, many procurement processes haven’t kept pace. Across industries, teams are still relying on manual reviews, spreadsheets, and email threads to manage the growing volume of supplier contracts. Visibility is fragmented. Analysis takes weeks. Savings opportunities get lost.

That’s why a growing number of procurement leaders are turning to AI. According to the EY Global CPO Survey: 2025 Outlook, 80% of procurement leaders plan to use AI within the next three years. And among all potential applications, one stands out: contract management.

Contracts: procurement’s new frontier for AI

Contracts are where procurement’s biggest challenges—and opportunities—live. Each agreement captures terms, pricing, performance obligations, and risk. Yet when those documents sit in static formats across disconnected systems, organizations lose visibility and leverage.

Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) is changing that. By embedding AI into the contracting process, procurement teams can analyze terms, flag risks, and collaborate more effectively with legal and finance—all while reclaiming the time they’d normally spend on manual review cycles.

But in a world saturated with AI promises, the real question is: How can procurement teams know which solution will make a true impact?

Docusign Iris is the AI engine at the heart of the Docusign IAM platform. Trained on decades of contract data, Iris helps teams extract insight, monitor obligations, and connect agreements across the organization. The result: Procurement can deliver measurable savings and strategy.

Below are four areas where contract automation and AI are helping procurement teams make better decisions—and a bigger impact—across the business.

1. Making agreement intake effortless

Procurement challenges often start long before the contract is signed. Intake is typically messy. Requests arrive through email, Slack, or ticketing systems, often with incomplete details or missing documents. Tracking versions and spotting trends become nearly impossible. The result: confusion, delays, and errors.

Deloitte’s Unlocking the Value of Agreement Management report estimates that contracting inefficiencies can cost organizations an average of $1.5 million in revenue and cause an 8% loss in global economic value for procurement functions.

AI is reversing that trend. With centralized agreement technology, AI can automatically interpret requests, prepopulate forms, and route them through the right workflows. Instead of managing updates across emails and attachments, procurement teams gain a single, trackable view of every incoming request.

In Docusign IAM, AI contract agents turn emailed requests into structured dashboard tasks. The system reads the message, extracts key details, and fills in the correct intake form automatically—eliminating back-and-forths and reducing human error. Every edit, approval, and comment is preserved in one centralized feed, so teams can collaborate without losing the thread.

The outcome: faster supplier onboarding, fewer manual errors, and easier scaling. Procurement gains the ability to:

• Centralize requests

• Track every review cycle in one location, with version control

• View real-time summaries of contract status, owners, and approvals

The payoff isn’t just efficiency. Nearly 50% of companies say contracting delays have hurt their partner and customer relationships, according to Deloitte. Simplifying intake doesn’t just make work easier—it gives an organization the ability to strengthen relationships.

2. Accelerating supplier negotiations

For years, supplier contract review was the domain of legal departments. The stakes were high: clauses could influence profitability and long-term supplier relationships. But manual review cycles were slow—especially when third-party vendors introduced unfamiliar language or complex structures.

AI-assisted contract review is transforming that process. Trained on approved playbooks and past agreements, AI tools can now analyze supplier drafts and suggest language that brings terms into alignment with company standards.

In Docusign IAM, AI-Assisted Review speeds up review cycles, spotlights unfavorable or noncompliant terms, and suggests corrections. Here’s how it works:

1. Receive draft: A supplier sends over their proposed agreement.

2. Analyze clauses: AI-Assisted Review analyzes the document against the organization’s contract playbook and flags deviations, such as extended delivery schedules or nonstandard payment terms.

3. Correct and finalize: AI-Assisted Review suggests language that will bring terms into alignment with company standards. And all it takes is one click to make a correction.

For busy legal teams, AI-Assisted Review removes a major bottleneck. For procurement, it ensures consistency and speed across supplier agreements.

Consistency matters. Procurement teams that excel in review and risk evaluation are nearly 70% more likely than their peers to report surpassing their contract and risk management targets, according to Deloitte’s Optimizing Agreement Management report.

3. Staying on top of obligations and preventing value leakage

Contract management doesn’t end at signature. Procurement teams must ensure that suppliers deliver on their obligations throughout the contract lifecycle. Yet when agreements are scattered across email archives, spreadsheets, and even file cabinets, visibility disappears.

Without a clear way to track terms like renewal dates or performance commitments, companies risk missing renegotiation windows, triggering unwanted auto-renewals, or overpaying for services. Deloitte reports that 56% of companies struggle to track the latest vendor terms and rate cards, leaving them vulnerable to inefficiencies and unnecessary costs.

AI-powered repositories turn static documents into dynamic insights. The repositories extract and track key milestones—like auto-renewals or payment due dates—and trigger automated notifications when deadlines approach. With real-time visibility, procurement can renegotiate proactively.

In the IAM platform, AI surfaces critical terms and data points, reducing manual tracking and supporting compliance. Procurement can monitor supplier performance commitments, enforce uptime requirements, and claim credits when suppliers fall short—all while maintaining a centralized record.

Docusign Navigator, IAM’s smart repository, uses Iris to turn unstructured contracts into structured, searchable, and actionable data. Teams can extract key information such as renewal dates, notice periods, and payment terms in seconds.

The impact is measurable:

• Efficiency: There’s less manual data entry and tracking

• Informed decisions: Key terms and trends are surfaced automatically

• Consistent risk mitigation: Monitoring compliance is easier through real-time reporting

According to Deloitte, 62% of companies have difficulty locating previously approved agreements—a gap that intelligent agreement management can close. Organizations with advanced, AI-enabled contract storage experience 40% fewer deal delays.

4. Turning contract data into strategic insight

Procurement teams frequently find themselves stuck sifting through hundreds of agreements to find patterns or savings opportunities. AI changes that through robust reporting and integrations. Procurement can connect contract data to finance, ERP, and CRM systems for a deeper analysis of spend, supplier performance, and risk exposure.

Docusign offers award-winning APIs and +1,000 integrations, allowing teams to sync procurement data across platforms. The automated flow of data eliminates manual updates, reduces errors, and ensures that decisions are based on the latest contract intelligence.

According to Deloitte, inefficiencies and technology gaps in agreement management workflows waste over 55 billion hours globally each year. By surfacing AI-driven insights, procurement teams can reclaim time and redirect it toward strategy.

Drive more value from procurement contracts with AI

The role of procurement is expanding—and AI offers a way to move faster, reduce risk, and extract more value from every supplier relationship.

From intake to negotiation to performance management, AI is transforming procurement contracting from a manual, back-office function into a strategic capability. Docusign IAM brings automation and intelligence together to streamline workflows, surface insights, and help procurement teams act with confidence. The next chapter of procurement will be led by those who embrace AI for agreements. Discover how Docusign IAM integrates AI into vendor contract management and moves procurement from cost controller to strategic driver.