Top 5 AI Tools for Contract Review in 2024

Contract review is one of the most time-consuming tasks for legal professionals, often requiring hours of careful analysis to identify risks, ensure compliance, and protect client interests. Artificial intelligence has made significant inroads in this area, with specialized tools that can dramatically reduce review time while catching issues that might be overlooked in manual review.

This article examines the five leading AI contract review platforms, comparing their features, strengths, and ideal use cases.

What Makes a Great AI Contract Review Tool?

Before diving into specific tools, it’s helpful to understand what separates exceptional contract review AI from basic solutions:

• Accuracy in issue spotting and clause identification
• Customizable risk analysis for different contract types and industries
• Integration capabilities with document management and CLM systems
• Explainable AI that shows reasoning behind flagged issues
• Support for multiple contract types and document formats
• User-friendly interface that doesn’t require technical expertise

1. LexCheck

Key Strengths:

• Rapid turnaround (typically under 5 minutes)
• Exceptional accuracy in identifying problematic clauses
• Superior redlining capabilities with suggested replacement language
• Pre-built clause libraries for various industries
• Seamless Microsoft Word integration

Best For: Corporate legal departments handling high volumes of similar contracts (NDAs, service agreements, etc.) who want quick, consistent review with specific language recommendations.

Pricing Model: Subscription-based, with pricing tiers determined by document volume.

AI Approach: LexCheck combines machine learning with a rules-based approach that incorporates legal expertise. This hybrid model allows for both pattern recognition and adherence to specific legal standards and playbooks.

2. Kira Systems

Key Strengths:

• Exceptional for due diligence with advanced data extraction
• Comprehensive built-in provision models (1000+)
• Highly customizable machine learning models
• Strong handling of non-standard document formats
• Superior foreign language capabilities

Best For: Law firms engaged in M&A due diligence, real estate transactions, or regulatory compliance reviews that require deep analysis across large document sets.

Pricing Model: Enterprise subscription with customized pricing based on firm size and needs.

AI Approach: Kira’s supervised machine learning system is trained on millions of contract provisions, with the ability to build custom models for specialized provision types. Their system excels at identifying both standard and unusual clause variants.

3. Evisort

Key Strengths:

• End-to-end contract lifecycle management
• No-code customization capabilities
• Superior contract renewal and obligation tracking
• Strong automated workflow capabilities
• High-quality visualizations and analytics

Best For: Organizations looking for a complete contract solution beyond review—one that manages the entire lifecycle from creation to renewal.

Pricing Model: Subscription-based with different tiers for varying features and volumes.

AI Approach: Evisort uses deep learning technologies trained on millions of documents to understand contract language in context, not just by keyword matching. Their AI is particularly strong at temporal awareness—understanding dates, deadlines, and renewal periods.

4. BlackBoiler

Key Strengths:

• Pre-execution contract markup automation
• “Learning” from past edits and markups
• Exceptional at handling third-party paper
• Strong Microsoft Word integration
• Patented technology for automated contract editing

Best For: Legal teams that typically receive third-party contracts and make similar revisions repeatedly, creating significant efficiencies by automating standard markups.

Pricing Model: Subscription with pricing based on document volume and complexity.

AI Approach: BlackBoiler’s patented approach learns from historical markup patterns to suggest similar edits on new documents. This focuses the AI on what the particular organization actually cares about, rather than generic “best practices.”

5. Luminance

Key Strengths:

• Unsupervised machine learning that works “out of the box”
• Exceptional for unfamiliar document sets
• Advanced pattern recognition for unusual or unexpected clauses
• Visualizations of document relationships and anomalies
• Statistical insights into large contract populations

Best For: Law firms and legal departments dealing with unfamiliar contract sets, particularly in cross-border transactions or when entering new industries without established playbooks.

Pricing Model: Subscription with pricing based on firm/department size and usage.

AI Approach: Luminance’s unsupervised machine learning approach allows it to identify patterns across document sets without prior training. This makes it particularly valuable for identifying unknown risks or anomalies that wouldn’t be caught by more rules-based systems.

Comparison Chart: Key Features

How to Choose the Right Tool

When selecting an AI contract review tool, consider:

1. Volume and types of contracts your organization handles
2. Integration needs with existing document management systems
3. Customization requirements for your specific industry or contract types
4. Budget constraints and ROI expectations
5. Implementation timeline and available IT resources
6. Foreign language requirements if dealing with international contracts

The Future of AI Contract Review

AI contract review continues to evolve rapidly. Key trends to watch include:

• Deeper clause-level understanding that captures subtle nuances and implications
• More automated negotiation assistance with recommendation engines
• Enhanced risk quantification capabilities
• Better pre-signature drafting integration with automated playbooks
• Improved data extraction for contract analytics and business intelligence

Conclusion

The right AI contract review tool can significantly enhance efficiency, reduce risk, and free up valuable attorney time for higher-value work. While each of the five platforms reviewed offers distinctive advantages, the best choice depends on your organization’s specific review processes, contract types, and operational needs.

For firms just beginning their AI journey, starting with a focused use case—such as NDA review or vendor agreement analysis—often provides the quickest return on investment and builds organizational comfort with AI-assisted legal work.

This article is for informational purposes only. We recommend requesting demos from multiple vendors before making a purchasing decision.