Icertis: How AI Contracts Save $70M Annually and 130,000 Work Hours

In companies with thousands of suppliers and hundreds of thousands of contracts, managing them becomes an endless stream of routine tasks. Icertis, a leader in contract intelligence, has shown how AI agents can generate millions in savings by automating this routine. For example, a major pharmaceutical company, a Fortune 500 member, saved $70 million annually by using AI to enforce commercial terms across over 250,000 contracts. A European telecom operator identified $35 million in potential savings after a merger by rationalizing supplier contracts with AI.

Procurement leaders face increasing pressure to deliver cost savings while managing increasingly complex supplier relationships. Thousands of hours are spent on manual document searches, verifications, preparing boilerplate responses, and checks that create no value but merely keep processes afloat. Multiply these hours by a specialist's rate, and it becomes clear how much "just manual work" costs. This can now be automated, but the question is who in your industry will do it first.

Where Millions Leak: The Reality of Contract Management

In large corporations, contracts are not just legal documents; they are strategic assets containing a vast amount of commercial intelligence. However, in practice, this information often remains "locked" within thousands of disparate agreements. Procurement leaders spend hours on manual analysis to identify pricing discrepancies, evaluate performance against obligations, uncover hidden risks, or find opportunities for discounts.

This process is slow, prone to human error, and demands immense time investment. The absence of a unified, analyzable contract database leads to missed savings opportunities, ineffective negotiations, and increased risks. For instance, volume discounts are overlooked, rebate terms are not enforced, or companies pay for untimely services simply because manual tracking is impossible.

Why Traditional Methods Fail to Scale

Most companies use either outdated document management systems or hybrid approaches where some work is automated, but much is still done manually. These systems can store contracts but cannot extract commercial value from them, analyze data, or propose strategic solutions. They cannot independently identify hidden savings opportunities, predict risks, or compare terms from different suppliers at scale.

Bernadette Bulacan, Chief Evangelist at Icertis, notes that enterprises manage thousands of supplier agreements containing vast amounts of untapped commercial intelligence. It became clear that what was needed was not just a storage system, but an intelligent tool that would transform static contracts into dynamic strategic assets. This led Icertis to develop AI agents capable of autonomously processing and analyzing contract data.

How the AI Agent for Contract Intelligence Was Designed

The AI agent was designed as a centralized system for extracting and analyzing commercial intelligence from contracts. Its primary functions include:

• Data Extraction. Automatically recognizing and extracting key terms, prices, deadlines, obligations, and other commercial metrics from thousands of contracts, regardless of their format or language.
• Discrepancy and Opportunity Analysis. Comparing terms from various suppliers, identifying pricing discrepancies, and uncovering hidden opportunities such as volume discounts, bonuses, or unused credits.
• Risk Assessment. Analyzing contractual obligations and terms to identify potential risks related to non-compliance, penalties, or changes in market conditions.
• Negotiation Preparation. Providing procurement leaders with data and recommendations for more favorable negotiations, based on reliable intelligence, not guesswork.

The key principle was that the AI agent should augment human capabilities, not replace them entirely, by automating routine tasks and providing analytical support for strategic decision-making. The goal was for the agent to independently handle mass and predictable operations, involving humans only for strategy development and final decision-making.

Implementation and Gradual Integration

The implementation of the AI agent was carried out in phases to ensure a smooth transition and minimize risks. Initially, the agent focused on data extraction and basic analysis. Gradually, as experience and trust grew, its functionality expanded. Procurement leaders began using the agent for negotiation preparation, identifying hidden opportunities, and risk assessment.

A crucial aspect was training employees to work with the new tool and demonstrating its value through specific examples of savings. As a result, over 83% of C-suite executives now consider AI agents that manage business relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners a top priority among all AI use cases.

Results of AI Agent Implementation

These results demonstrate that AI agents do not merely automate processes; they unlock new opportunities for strategic management. Savings of $70 million annually for one company and $35 million for another are not just numbers; they represent a direct impact on profitability and competitiveness.

How to Implement This in Your Business

If your company manages a large volume of contracts and supplier relationships, an AI agent can be a powerful tool for improving efficiency. Here's how to start:

• Identify Critical Areas. Determine where manual contract analysis consumes the most time and where there is the greatest potential for savings or risk reduction.
• Start with Data Extraction. Automate the process of extracting key terms from existing contracts. This will provide the necessary foundation for further analysis.
• Use AI for Discrepancy Analysis. Allow the agent to compare contract terms, identify pricing and condition differences, and find hidden opportunities for discounts.
• Integrate into Negotiation Process. Use the analytical data provided by the agent to prepare for negotiations, ensuring they are based on facts, not guesswork.
• Focus on AI's Complementary Role. The agent should automate routine tasks, but the human element, especially in strategic negotiations, remains crucial.

If this case sounds like what's happening in your company, our manager can help: he'll analyze your business and niche for free and point out where an AI agent would bring a real result in your case. Message the manager