Despite an outpouring of media coverage for generative artificial intelligence (AI), some may still wonder whether reality will actually measure up to all the hype. Sure, this is a clear technological advancement, but haven’t we been here before?

Many wary legal professionals remember how the initial excitement around previous AI introductions led to disillusionment—especially in the Contract Lifecycle Management space. Promises of productivity from the technology were limited to simple, easily templated, and logic-based tasks, such as document review or markup. Legal professionals at companies with a variety of agreements, risk portfolios, or limited leverage to use their own templates were left wondering how this early form of AI was going to vastly improve their lives, as promised.