All articlesAI Contract Review Still Needs Legal Judgment
Caleto · October 17, 2026
A useful AI review gives a reviewer something they can verify: the relevant clause, the issue it may raise, the policy used to assess it, and a proposed next step. A confident summary alone is not enough. Before evaluating any tool, decide what a good review looks like for your team.
Define the task before uploading a contract
Start with one contract type and a specific review objective. For example, a procurement team might want a first pass against its approved supplier playbook. That task is narrower and easier to assess than asking a tool to find every possible legal risk.
Write down the party you represent, the commercial context, and the decisions reserved for an authorized reviewer. Keep document handling within the process your organization has approved.
Make your playbook usable
A playbook should explain what a reviewer is looking for and what to do when the language differs. Useful entries include:
The clause or topic being reviewed.
The preferred position and permitted alternatives.
The conditions that change the assessment.
The point at which the issue must be escalated.
Avoid treating every difference as equally serious. An unexpected phrase may be harmless in context, while a familiar clause can create a problem when read with a definition or schedule elsewhere in the document.
Verify findings against the document
For each material finding, open the cited text. Check whether the tool has the right version, whether the quoted passage is complete, and whether definitions or cross-references change the result. Ask the reviewer to distinguish a missing clause from a clause the extraction process failed to read.
Review proposed edits as edits. Confirm that a redline expresses the intended position, preserves related wording, and does not introduce a new inconsistency. Record the final decision and its owner.
Evaluate a workflow, not a single answer
Build a small evaluation set of documents you are permitted to use. Include ordinary examples and awkward ones: amendments, scanned pages, inconsistent terms, and important language in a schedule. Measure incorrect findings, missed issues, citation quality, and the effort needed to reach a reviewed result.
The ABA’s guidance accompanying Formal Opinion 512 discusses competence, confidentiality, communication, and fees when lawyers use generative AI. It is guidance about the ABA Model Rules; teams should check the professional requirements that apply to their own work.
Source: ABA guidance on lawyers’ use of AI tools.
Use a demo to test your actual review process
Caleto’s product discussions cover playbooks, document review, drafting, and Word workflows. Bring a permitted sample and your review criteria to a demo so the conversation can focus on the steps your team needs. Confirm the available workflow and integration requirements before including them in your rollout.