From control to connection

Contracts are about boundaries. They define expectations, allocate risk, establish responsibilities, and enforce accountability. These boundaries are embedded in what contracts say, and in how they are created and used.

Over the years, there have been multiple papers describing contracts as 'boundary objects’ – tools that are, in theory, designed to coordinate across diverse interests, but often become so overloaded by complexity that they become walls rather than bridges.

Contracts today are too often weapons, rather than objects of communication and reconciliation.

In modern business, contracts are shaped by a tangle of intersecting boundaries: between business functions and legal advisors, between buyers and suppliers, between companies and regulators, between local markets and global strategies. These boundaries – while often necessary – give rise to complexity, fragmentation, and disconnection. The result is contracts that are hard to understand, harder to act on.

Rather than promoting collaboration, contracts have become a dense and impenetrable wall of words – a symbol of misalignment, not coordination.

But this is changing. With the advent of AI-native Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), contracts have the potential to shift from barriers to bridges – becoming a flowing river of structured, contextual knowledge that connects people, processes, data and performance. The game-changer in this is Agentic AI, which sits on top of the AI-native core and enables a move from abstract concepts to practical reality. A network of AI agents, operating with different purposes, ranks and roles, create a dynamic interface between technology and people.

This paper explores how AI-native CLM, equipped with this Agentic Architecture, can dismantle the walls and replace them with pathways – enabling contracts to operate as engines of intelligence and action in an increasingly connected, volatile world.

But the business world has changed. Market disruption, geopolitical uncertainty, and technological transformation are pushing organisations to become more agile, data-driven, and collaborative. In this environment, contracts must evolve. Rather than static documents locked in silos, they must become dynamic assets – tools for coordination, performance, and value creation.

Drawing on WorldCC research, academic models, and real-world examples, it provides a guide for leaders seeking to transform how contracts function – and the value they deliver.

Fragmentation is one of the most persistent, hidden and costly symptoms of traditional contract management.

In many organizations, the contract lifecycle is spread across siloed systems and functional teams: legal handles terms, procurement drives pricing, sales pushes timelines, finance reviews payment schedules, and operations is left to deliver. With no single source of truth and limited visibility across functions, agreeing the contract becomes a bottleneck and in practical terms, far from operating as a bridge, it is largely ignored once it has been signed.

Fragmentation isn’t just inefficient, it also generates risks. When contract data is scattered and hard to access, it becomes harder to identify obligations, monitor risks, or react to change. In regulated environments or highstakes supplier relationships, the cost of a missed clause, milestone, or condition can be substantial.

And while technology has evolved, many CLM implementations have taken a narrow view of digitization, focusing to a large extent on the process associated with contract creation, rather than the overall contracting lifecycle. This results in a failure to address the underlying fragmentation of people, process, and data.

To unlock the real value of contracting, organizations must move from disconnected tools to integrated intelligence. This means systems that don’t just store contracts but connect insights across legal, commercial, and operational teams, enabling a single, coherent view of commitments and performance contract performance.

The examples below are drawn from our Ten Pitfalls in Contracting and Friction Points in the Contracting Process reports, which repeatedly highlight how poor coordination and information flow undermine contract performance.

From fragmentation to integration – common symptoms and outcomes

Readiness assessment

Successful implementation of agentic CLM requires an evaluation of organizational readiness across four dimensions: People, process, platform and data.

Stakeholder alignment

As with any CLM implementation, cross-functional collaboration is essential. Stakeholders from legal, finance, procurement, supply chain and commercial departments must work with their IT teams to ensure that the newly-enabled system meets diverse needs and gains organisation-wide adoption. Understanding a core set of use cases is often important to reduce fear of the unknown.

Governance and change management

Implementing Agentic CLM involves significant change. Establishing clear governance structures and change management strategies helps in managing this transition effectively. These include a need for clear sponsorship and escalation paths, an effective communications plan, active engagement of system users, and ongoing capture of lessons learned.

Looking ahead In the digital age, contracts are evolving from static documents to dynamic components of enterprise infrastructure. Rather than setting boundaries and creating barriers, they can serve as connectors in digital ecosystems, linking systems, processes, and stakeholders.

In this environment, while AI enhances efficiency and can uplift effectiveness, human judgment remains essential. Professionals will continue to interpret complex scenarios, to review and challenge AI outputs, and to provide strategic guidance and updates.

We’re not losing control. We’re gaining capacity.

Organizations should shift their perspective on contracts, no longer primarily operating as tools of enforcement but instead providing engines of insight. Embracing AI-enabled CLM transforms contracts into strategic assets, where compliance becomes far more dynamic, and humans can shift their focus to value creation and commercial innovation.

Tim Cummins

President

WorldCC

Ajay Agrawai

CEO

Sirion

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World Commerce & Contracting

From control to connection

The impact of AI Agents in CLM

Introduction

From control to connection

The cost of fragmentation

Agentic AI – Connecting Technology and CLM Usability

From control to connection