AI contract review software can extract key terms, flag risk, compare versions, and auto-redline third-party paper in Microsoft Word using your playbooks. Used with the right controls, it shortens reviews while legal keeps final say.

This guide compares the best AI contract review tools of 2026, explains how they differ, and shows when to use each.  

What is AI contract review and how does it work?

AI contract review uses machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to analyse legal documents. These technologies enable AI to extract critical information, flag potential risks, and suggest revisions. AI tools are trained on vast datasets, allowing them to recognise patterns and understand legal terminology.

Most advanced AI contract review tools now work on the basis of “playbooks” - in simple terms,  a list of checks you want to make on the document. Playbooks can be used to grade risks, extract information and inform redrafts and so form the foundation of high-quality contract review.

The best AI contract review tools have extensive legal training built in, so that redraft suggestions reflect legal nuance. They enable you to work directly in Microsoft Word or Google Docs and keep confidential data protected.

Read more: What makes a great Legal AI playbook

Best AI tools for contract review tools at a glance

Best AI tools for contract review in 2026

1. LEGALFLY

LEGALFLY is one of the most complete AI contract review platforms on the market. It combines the best features of standalone review tools and CLMs into a single, privacy-first system designed for in-house teams.

It reviews contracts clause by clause, surfacing risks, omissions, and deviations against your playbooks. It can auto-redline directly in Microsoft Word, and then goes further: every suggested edit is accompanied by a plain-language explanation. It performs provision extraction and anomaly detection across large portfolios.

Unique to LEGALFLY is its default anonymisation. All client and counterparty data is stripped before analysis, ensuring reviews are compliant with GDPR and safe for sensitive information. It is also jurisdiction-aware, adapting checks to the governing law of the contract, making it suitable for global teams.

Outputs are structured into clear issue lists, clause comparisons, and redlines mapped to your playbooks. Its agentic design means once legal directs it, LEGALFLY can execute reviews independently while keeping lawyers in control of final decisions.

Best for: In-house legal teams that need an all-in-one review system with enterprise-grade security, Microsoft 365-native workflows, and cross-border capabilities.

Strength in review: Does what specialist tools do individually (auto-redlining, clause extraction, compliance checks, anomaly detection) but combined in one secure, jurisdiction-aware platform.

Want to accelerate your contract review with secure AI? Book a demo with one of our experts to learn how you can implement AI in your workflows. 

LEGALFLY Word Add-in

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2. Legly

Legly is a Swiss platform aimed at smaller firms and mid-sized teams. It focuses on deal-breaker highlighting and metadata extraction, with portfolio visualisation to map risks across agreements. It is simple and cost-effective but lacks enterprise-level customisation.

Best for: Smaller teams needing affordable AI clause flagging.

Strength in review: Highlights risky clauses and visualises portfolio risk.

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3. Spellbook

Spellbook integrates as a Microsoft Word add-in, providing AI suggestions for drafting and review. It flags risks, ensures compliance with standard practices, and can propose edits in real time. While it’s useful for lawyers working directly in Word, it is less suited for complex, cross-jurisdictional review.

Best for: Lawyers drafting and reviewing contracts inside Word.

Strength in review: Inline risk flagging and clause suggestions.

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4. Workday Contract Intelligence (powered by Evisort)

Workday absorbed Evisort’s AI in 2025, offering portfolio-wide contract intelligence and CLM. It excels at reviewing large volumes of contracts quickly, surfacing obligations and risks across thousands of agreements. Unlike LEGALFLY, it is less focused on detailed redlining of individual contracts.

Best for: Enterprises using Workday that want portfolio-level insights.

Strength in review: Portfolio-scale risk and compliance analysis.

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5. Luminance

Luminance is strong in anomaly detection and compliance mapping, making it popular for cross-border reviews. However, it can require steep onboarding and isn’t embedded in Microsoft 365.

Best for: Law firms and corporates handling cross-border, complex reviews.

Strength in review: Anomaly detection and compliance analysis.

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6. Juro

Juro combines AI contract review with a complete contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform, enabling legal and business teams to draft, review, negotiate, and manage contracts in one place. Its AI review features help surface risks, suggest improvements, and ensure compliance, while native workflows cover approvals, eSignature, and post-signature management. By uniting AI review with end-to-end CLM, Juro reduces reliance on multiple tools and streamlines the entire contract process for fast-growing businesses.

Best for: Fast-growing in-house teams needing CLM + redlining.

Strength in review: Workflow-embedded playbook redlining.

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7. Kira (Litera)

Kira is a long-standing AI review platform best known for clause extraction and due diligence analysis. It is excellent at surfacing provisions across thousands of contracts but does not specialise in redlining or anonymisation.

Best for: Law firms and M&A teams reviewing high volumes.

Strength in review: Accurate provision extraction at scale.

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8. ContractPodAi

ContractPodAi is an all-in-one CLM platform with AI review built in. Its assistant, Leah, can flag risky clauses, propose redlines, and run compliance checks against clause libraries. It integrates with Microsoft Word and supports negotiation workflows inside its CLM environment.

Best for: Teams wanting AI review inside a broader CLM system.

Strength in review: Playbook-driven risk flagging and conversational redlines.

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9. DocJuris

DocJuris is built for contract negotiation. It highlights deviations from playbooks and enables collaborative review across procurement, finance, and legal. It is more about structured negotiation workflows than automated redlining.

Best for: Procurement and legal ops negotiation.

Strength in review: Playbook-driven deviation tracking and collaboration.

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The benefits of using AI for legal contract review

Accelerated deal cycles: AI significantly speeds up contract review and negotiation, helping businesses close deals faster and improve time-to-revenue.

Faster contract analysis: AI drastically reduces the time needed to review contracts. This allows the legal team to focus on high-value tasks, as well as enabling businesses to recognise revenue sooner and improve cash flow.

More certainty: AI ensures critical clauses and risks are identified early, minimising last-minute disputes or renegotiations that can delay deal completion.

Smarter resource allocation: Automating contract review reduces the need for manual intervention, allowing legal teams to focus on negotiation

Streamlined compliance: Automated compliance reviews ensure that contracts meet regulatory standards upfront, reducing bottlenecks in finalising agreements and avoiding post-deal liabilities.

Cost savings: Automating repetitive tasks lowers operational costs by reducing reliance on manual labour.

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The limitations of AI in reviewing legal contracts

Can AI understand legal nuances?

Some AI tools struggle with bespoke provisions and jurisdiction-specific phrasing because it lacks context. The best tools narrow this gap by applying your playbooks, recognising governing law, grounding suggestions in approved precedents, and showing short rationales for each redline in Word. That makes the system context-aware and auditable, while final judgement remains with you.

Challenges in contextual and complex language

Legal language has layered meaning across definitions, schedules and cross-references. Instead of generic pattern matching, the best tools interpret defined terms, check clause interplay, test caps and carve-outs, and adapt to local law. For issues like “material” versus “minor” breach, indemnities, or limitation of liability, they apply your policy thresholds and propose aligned wording, then escalate low-confidence or high-impact items for human review.

Dependence on high-quality training data

The reliability of AI tools hinges on the quality and diversity of their training datasets. If these datasets lack representation of diverse legal scenarios or jurisdictional variations, AI outputs can skew towards generalisations. Poorly curated datasets may embed biases that affect the tool’s ability to process nuanced language fairly.

Security of data

The use of AI in legal processes necessitates handling sensitive and confidential information. Ensure that AI vendors adhere to stringent data protection standards and comply with local regulations.  

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How to collaborate with AI in legal review

1. Treat AI as an associate, not an autonomous decision maker.

2. Define the brief: set governing law, playbooks, fallback positions, and constraints.

3. Use retrieval and references: prefer tools that ground suggestions in your clauses and policies and show sources or reasoning.

4. Require explainable redlines in Word: insist on tracked changes with a justification for each edit.

5. A lawyer should approve material edits, escalations, and deviations from playbook.

When to rely on AI vs. when to lead with humans

Good candidates for AI-first: NDAs, DPAs using a standard addendum, vendor Ts&Cs with clear playbooks, version comparisons, clause extraction at portfolio scale.

Human-led with AI assist: novel or highly negotiated clauses, cross-border agreements with regulatory exposure, high-value commercial terms, employment and regulated-industry contracts where context and tone matter.

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Should you use AI to review legal contracts?

Yes, provided you keep lawyers in the loop and choose a platform with the right guardrails.

What you gain: faster first-pass review, earlier risk discovery, better portfolio visibility, and more time for negotiation and strategy.

What to look for in a tool:

• Native Microsoft Word redlining with explanations for each change

• Playbook and jurisdiction awareness

• Anonymisation of sensitive data before analysis

• Traceability: sources, reasoning, and audit logs

• Clear data-use terms (no training on your data by default)

If you need a single platform that covers these bases, LEGALFLY pairs agentic review and auto-redlining with default anonymisation, jurisdiction-aware checks, and Microsoft 365 integrations, so legal stays in control while the work accelerates.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How does AI contract review work?

‍AI contract review uses advanced language models to analyse a contract’s text, break it into clauses, identify risks or deviations from policy, and suggest improvements. It automatically spots issues such as missing terms, excessive liabilities, or compliance gaps, compares language to preferred playbooks, and can generate redlines or revised wording. While it significantly speeds up review and improves consistency, it still supports rather than replaces human legal judgment. For more information see: How to use AI for contract review and analysis. 

Is AI contract review accurate?

‍Accuracy depends on the quality of the legal training behind the platform you’re using and how well your playbook reflects your preferred positions. For the best results, it’s worth creating a customised playbook that clearly outlines your standards. Providers like LEGALFLY can help build this with you.

Is my data secure when using AI for contract review?‍

Before uploading any contract to an AI tool, make sure the platform meets your security requirements. Look for solutions that offer private hosting options and, for maximum protection, automated anonymisation of sensitive data before processing begins.

What types of contract are a good fit for AI review?‍

When getting started, it’s best to choose contracts that follow consistent structures and where you already have clear preferred positions. High-volume, repeatable documents work especially well. Common examples include NDAs, DPAs, and supplier or service agreements.

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Disclaimer: We wrote this article in Q4 2025. The information was based on our own online research and we were not able to manually test each tool or provider. The information is provided for educational purposes only and a reader should consider the specific requirements of their business when evaluating providers. This research is reviewed every six months. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at marketing@legalfly.com.