For businesses without a lawyer on staff
A contract landed in your inbox. AI can read it first. You still decide what to sign.
Plain-language help for owners and managers who use AI on contracts: how to get a useful first read, what to check, what is safe to paste, and when the answer is to call a lawyer.
Three steps for any contract
Step 1
Check it is safe to paste
Five quick questions before a customer's or supplier's document goes into an AI tool.
Safe to pasteStep 2
Ask for a first read
A copyable prompt that asks the AI to list the key terms, dates, payment, renewal and anything one-sided, with the clause number for each.
Your first promptStep 3
Check the answer
The checks that catch most AI mistakes: invented clauses, missed schedules, renewal dates and fees.
How to checkWhat AI can do on its own, and what it cannot
It can do on its own
- Pull out the parties, dates, fees, renewal and notice terms into a short table.
- Explain a clause in plain language.
- List terms that look one-sided, with the words it relies on.
- Draft a polite email asking the other side about a term.
It cannot do for you
- Tell you whether a term is acceptable for your business.
- Know facts it was not given, or terms the contract only refers to.
- Take responsibility for what you sign.
- Replace advice from a lawyer where the stakes call for one.
When to call a lawyer
AI is a good first reader. These are signs that the contract needs a person qualified to advise you:
- A personal guarantee, or anything that makes you personally liable
- Large amounts, long commitments or automatic renewals you cannot easily exit
- Uncapped liability or an indemnity covering the other side's losses
- Exclusivity, non-compete or ownership of your work or ideas
- A lease, a loan, an investment or the sale of your business
- A dispute, a demand letter or a deadline set by a court or agency
- Employees' pay, termination or immigration questions
- The AI's answer and the contract seem to disagree, or you are unsure
In plain terms
Use AI to understand the document and prepare your questions. A lawyer is quicker and cheaper to use when you arrive with the key terms already listed.
Free
Contract review checklist (PDF)
What to check in any AI review of a contract, on one page.
DownloadFour minutes
Readiness check
See how ready you are to use AI on contracts, and your next two steps.
Take the checkProvisoIQ provides educational material and tools, not legal advice, and using the site does not create a lawyer-client relationship. See the Terms.