Introduction
Metadata may not be the flashiest part of contract management—but it’s the part that makes everything else work. Like rebar in concrete or code behind your favorite app, metadata gives your contracts structure, purpose, and power. It’s what turns a static document into an active business asset. And thanks to recent advances in AI, metadata extraction is entering a new era—one where speed, accuracy, and scale are no longer at odds.
Metadata: From Filing Cabinet to Forecast Engine
Let’s start with a truth we see every day: Contracts are more than legal formalities. They’re data-rich blueprints for how your business operates—from how much you’re paying (or getting paid) to when obligations kick in or revenue gets recognized.
But that data is often buried in PDFs, locked in third-party paper, or trapped in a maze of redlines. Without structure, that data can’t drive workflows. It can’t trigger alerts. It can’t surface risks or enable renewals. Enter metadata.
Metadata is the connective tissue between your contracts and your business operations—and AI is now the scalpel that extracts it with speed and precision.
Enter: Contracts 365 AI Extraction Companion
We built the AI Extraction Companion to take the grunt work out of extracting terms, conditions, and obligations from fully negotiated agreements and third-party paper. The tool lives right inside Contracts 365, built on Microsoft Azure and integrates with large language models (LLMs) to automatically identify key fields like:
- Counterparty
- Contract type
- Governing law
- Effective and end dates
- Notice periods
- Payment terms
- Risk summaries
- ...and more
No need to cut and paste. No need to re-key. No need to hunt through executed agreements with a highlighter. Just upload and go.
Why AI-First Contract Management Isn’t Enough
There’s a wave of CLM vendors touting “AI-first” platforms but, as with a lot of AI solutions, a much of it boils down to fancy repackaging. A chatbot alone doesn’t solve contract management.
Yes, AI is essential. But it’s important to remember that things like a secure document repository, customizable workflows, obligation tracking, user permissions, and integration with tools like Microsoft 365 are not “nice to haves”—they there are some of the essential parts of a holistic and effective solution to enterprise-grade contract management.
Contracts 365 takes a more grounded view: We see AI and coordinated AI agents as a high-powered assistant—not the whole office. In fact, AI-driven metadata extraction should be part of a larger, battle-tested infrastructure designed to handle real business complexity.
Accuracy Without the Anxiety
We get it, AI makes people nervous. Especially when it comes to legal content.
Contracts 365’s AI Extraction Companion uses Microsoft OpenAI models, but unlike many tools out there, it doesn’t learn from your data. Your contracts stay in your own Microsoft 365 environment. Your prompts are customizable. And your data is protected by the same enterprise-grade infrastructure Microsoft uses to protect its own.
And while our models are highly accurate—often well into the 90% range—we don’t believe in blind faith. We always say, "Trust, but verify." AI should make your legal team faster, not replace it.
A Few Things It Just Gets Right
- Works with any contract type
From NDAs to sales agreements to bespoke partner arrangements, our tool adapts.
- Pre-built but flexible
We preload the ten most common metadata fields. Need more? We’ve got five customizable slots and support packages to go even deeper.
- No training required
Unlike legacy AI systems, there’s nothing to “train.” It works out of the box, no machine learning curve required.
- Easy prompt refinement
Anyone with basic business know-how can adjust the prompts. No AI PhD needed.
- Compliance without micromanagement
Extracted metadata enables automated alerts, SLA tracking, renewal workflows, and risk flags—all without daily handholding.
Microsoft at the Core
Everything we build is designed to align with the Microsoft tech stack—because that’s where your team already works. From Azure infrastructure to OpenAI integration, Contracts 365 is purpose-built to amplify your existing Microsoft 365 investment.
That also means no extra CoPilot license required. Our AI functionality is self-contained and optimized for contract data—not general-purpose AI chat.
And while others are still tinkering with AI plug-ins, we’ve already integrated, secured, and shipped.
When Scale Meets Sanity
As contract volume grows, your legal team shouldn’t have to scale linearly. AI Extraction helps you do more with less—faster onboarding, quicker turnarounds, and fewer dropped obligations. Whether you’re adding ten new agreements a week or a thousand, the system scales without breaking a sweat.
It's not about replacing people—it’s about removing the bottlenecks that prevent people from doing their best work.
Finalord: Don’t Just Digitize. Operationalize.
The future of CLM isn’t about storing more contracts. It’s about doing more with them. AI makes that possible, but only when it’s part of a complete system. Contracts 365 isn’t just smart software—it’s a smarter way to run your business.
If your contracts are still sitting in shared drives, buried in email threads, or manually tracked in spreadsheets, now’s the time to level up.
Let’s put your contracts to work.
Want to learn more? Download Contracts 365 AI Extraction Companion eBook today or schedule a live demo to see the AI Extraction Companion in action for yourself.
