About a year and half ago, TE Connectivity's senior manager of legal operations and business performance Jim Michalowicz and his team were shopping around for a new artificial intelligence-powered contract management tool. The provider they ultimately selected wasn't the one with the biggest client base or name recognition—it was the system with a principal who was a former contract lawyer. 

Whereas the other vendors had spoken to Michalowicz and his colleagues as technologists, this onetime attorney could directly relate to some of the daily challenges that lawyers face when moving through the various phases of the contract life cycle.  

"So the messaging really resonated with us," Michalowicz said.