Extract from Olga V. Mack’s article “How AI Broke Traditional Contract Workflows and Made Analytics Essential”
In 2025, many legal teams felt something break long before they could name it.
Contract review queues backed up. Escalations increased. Turnaround times stretched. Legal ops leaders found themselves under pressure not because deal volume exploded overnight, but because the existing workflows no longer fit the work they were being asked to do.
The issue wasn’t just more contracts; it was a mismatch between how contracts now function and how legal teams are structured to handle them.AI didn’t just change what contracts say. It broke the workflows designed to manage them. Traditional contract workflows assume a familiar rhythm. A document arrives. Legal reviews it. The agreement is approved or negotiated. Then it’s filed away, to be enforced only if something goes wrong.
AI disrupted that rhythm.
