New software applies machine learning to contract reviews

When contracts need to be reviewed, renewed or revised, the process tends to be labor intensive and time consuming.

Contract delivery and analytics specialist Seal Software is launching version 5.0 of its contract analysis software, which uses machine learning to speed up the process. It also includes a new add-in which allows contract data extraction and review capabilities to be used within Microsoft Word.

Analyze This Now (ATN) pulls existing contracts directly into Word, converting all documents -- including PDF and TIFF images -- into MS Word format. From there, business users can review text, update terms, change metrics, and create new versions all within their familiar Word interface. With ATN, the Seal platform is running in the background, analyzing the text and showing users the status of clauses and provisions using color-coded shading for clear visibility. Seal clearly indicates if text matches approved legal language or if it is non-standard, and the degree of variance. It also shows the status of contracts currently under review.

The machine learning element works by allowing business users to provide positive and negative examples of the information they're looking for. Seal will then create an optimal set of algorithms and models, applied in its deep learning framework, to optimize that specific data extraction process. It’s focused on speed and simplicity for contract data extractions, needing just a single example from users to extract clauses, dates, people, money and other discrete data points.

"Our new solution reflects significant work from the Seal product team to put the power of machine learning into non-technical users' hands," says Kevin Gidney, co-founder and CTO of Seal Software. "We are now combining our original, single example method with the exposed AI functions, meaning customers can now take full advantage of the Seal platform, as its team of 40+ developers, data scientists, and legal services teams now do for customers. Version 5.0 is also our first major stepping stone in delivering our overall Seal vision, which will dramatically change how contracts will be processed and their data managed over the next 18 months".

More details about the latest release are available on the Seal Software website.

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