The legal technology company Exigent is today unveiling a major update to its contract management software that introduces Scarlett, an artificial intelligence tool for automatic extraction of contract data and enhanced contextual search.

The company says that its new CMS automates the sometimes costly and time-consuming extraction and input of contract data. It uses AI to extract key business and legal terms and then make that information accessible as data in a common format. This data is then accessible to users through dashboards or reports generated by the system.

The CMS creates a central repository for a company’s contracts, providing visibility across an organization and a company-wide view of contract-related metrics and key performance indicators.

Exigent says Scarlett is useful not only to a company’s legal department, but also for procurement, sales and other departments within an organization. Several customers have already been testing it for uses including contract review, LIBOR transition, and general compliance.

Scarlett enables contextual search functionality that is more powerful than traditional keyword search, the company says. It is able to search for patterns around the words searched to give them meaning in context, uncovering relevant phrases, sentences and paragraphs in a document that might otherwise not be found.

Exigent says that other key features of its CMS include:

  • A secure, centralized contract repository that includes contract management modules that provide a centralized display of organization-wide information, providing visibility across the contract portfolio.
  • Dashboards that allow customizable data visualization, allowing teams to see key terms, conditions and amendments and providing an overall view of metrics and key performance indicators.
  • Live alerts and reports to manage contractual obligations and milestones, such as price review triggers, and ensure contract renewals are executed on time.

“AI has changed the contract management game and it’s time legal and procurement face the music – they’ve been deaf for too long,” said David Holme, CEO of Exigent. “There are no more excuses for not having your contracts in digital form and all in one central, secure place. And it’s wrong to not use the data to manage risk and improve business performance.”