How to use AI to enhance your clause summaries in Review and Repository
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How to use AI in your Summaries
Example custom prompts
How to get a concise summary on a specific clause e.g. liability
How do I get a YES/NO answer in a summary?
How do I write a prompt that detects key dates?
Can the AI answer question about a clause rather than give me a summary?
Can I use custom prompts to check if the clause summary is compliant?
How do I understand my obligations under an auto-renewal?
How do I determine payment terms within a contract?
Can I translate clause summaries?
Custom prompt guidance
How to use AI in your Summaries
Summize AI can be used on a clause by clause basis, to feed your clause results found by Clause Manager either through a default prompt, or a custom prompt.
Enabling Summize AI in Clause Manager ensures that new contracts submitted for review or uploaded to the repository will feature AI-generated clause summaries instead of the original contract text. You can choose to enable or disable AI for specific clauses based on your preferred output.
To enable AI on your clause, select the prompt you would like to use: default or custom.
Default Summary
Selecting 'AI Assistant - Default Prompt' will apply a default prompt to your clause result, which will translate the, often complex, "legalese" into natural language that anyone in the business can understand, regardless of legal background. This is perfect for when your business users are accessing their reviews, or contracts in the repository that you've given them visibility to, and allowing them to understand the contract's contents without needing guidance from the legal team.
Custom Prompt Summary
Selecting 'AI Assistant - Custom Prompt' allows you to specify the prompt that you would like to apply to the clause, depending on the output that you want to see.
We also recommend selecting 'All' related paragraphs, to maximise the context you're giving to AI for it to generate a summary:
There's a multitude of use cases for this, so get creative! We have outlined some examples in the section below.
Example Custom Prompts
Learn from the best practices of our in-house Legal Engineers, who have shared some of their most effective prompts for contract summaries.
Our new AI summaries have really put the ‘R’ in our HERO metrics – we’ve revolutionised the capabilities for reviewing and extracting data out of contracts! Whether you’re a seasoned expert or new to the wonderful world of Summize AI, read on to find out how to optimise your contract summaries.
How to get a concise summary on a specific clause e.g. liability
Identify the following from this contract:
- What liabilities are expressly excluded; and
- Does either party disclaim any liability.
Limit your response to 100 words.
The format of this prompt can be recycled for almost any other clause. The numbered structure enables you to query the information provided in different ways and ensure you extract key point such as exclusions and disclaimers.
How do I get a YES/NO answer in a summary?
Please answer the below question in the following format:
YES/NO
Justification in bullet points with references to specific text,
Question: Is the agreement governed by the laws of England and Wales?
A prompt like this can be really useful for mass review projects where you simply want to know the answer to a question. This enables the reviewer to spot check outliers at a glance.
How do I write a prompt that detects key dates?
Whether it’s a termination event or an auto-renewal, key dates are essential to extract from contracts and keep track of. Avoid being blindsided with the prompt below (just make sure to specify your date formatting)
From the given paragraphs please search for dates.
You are looking for the [type of date], if found please respond with this date only in MM/DD/YYYY format. Do not include any other text.
If this specific date is not found please suggest other dates from the contract that could have the same meaning.
Can the AI answer questions about a clause rather than give me a summary?
Yes! More often than not, it can be easier to query the clause, rather than get a block of text as a summary.
From the given text analyse [clause/provision] and answer the following questions:
- [Question]
- [Question]
- [Question]
Keep your answer under 100/200 words total.
Can I use custom prompts to check if the clause summary is compliant?
Using the template below, you can have the AI not only pull out relevant clauses and summarise their contents, but run a compliance check to see it compares to your standard position.
Instructions for AI: Given the contract text and the standard position outlined above, please analyze the [Clause] related sections only. Your analysis should focus solely on the alignment of the contract's wording with the standard position. Ensure your response adheres to the expected response format for clarity and consistency in evaluation.
[Clause]
Standard Position for Comparison:
[Position from template]
Evaluation Criteria:
[Guidance]
Expected Response Format:
Compliance Level: (COMPLIANT / PARTIALLY COMPLIANT / NOT COMPLIANT / NOT FOUND)
Relevant clauses: [State relevant clause numbers]
Reasoning:
List key points from the contract's [Clause] related sections that support the compliance level.
Reference specific clauses that align with or deviate from the standard position.
Summary: Provide a concise summary (under 100 words) explaining your overall decision regarding the compliance level.
Styling: Leave a line break between Compliance Level, Reasoning and Summary.
How do I understand my obligations under an auto-renewal?
Is there an automatic renewal of the contract based on the contract text? (Answer Yes/No only).
If Yes, what is the notice period required to avoid the automatic renewal? (Answer with the number of days only).
Not only does this prompt tell you about the presence of an auto-renewal, but it also provides you with the essential information about how to properly provide notice. This information is just as important as knowing about the auto-renewal as missing the notice period can be fatal.
How do I determine payment terms within a contract?
- How many days after invoicing does the customer have to pay the fees due? (Answer number of days only).
- Briefly, list the invoicing process. Limit answer to 100 words maximum.
This prompt provides you with the answer to two of your questions in one. Here the payment terms are explained along with how invoices are processed, enabling you to effectively understand when and how to invoice under the agreement.
Can I translate clause summaries?
Take any of the existing prompts you’ve written and add the below to it in order to translate your clause summary.
Your response needs to be understood by [language] and English speakers. Provide two responses, one in each language, separate the two responses with a **** marker.
Whilst this is particularly cutting edge technology, we are really keen to get your feedback on what prompts have worked well for you and how you are finding use of AI prompts in general.
By experimenting with our AI prompts you should see the quality of your summaries jump massively so happy prompting! And don’t forget, your CSM is always on hand to help you on your way to being a Contract (and Clause Manager) HERO!
Custom Prompt Guidance
Alongside the examples above, here are three key areas to focus your prompts on to get the best results:
- Context - Both a persona and the context of the instruction really help with the response. For example, act as a Legal Assistant to an in-house legal team that is being given a task relating to a [contract type].
- Outcome - What do you want the output to look like, ideally use an example if relevant. For example: 'Provide a list starting with 1.' or 'Provide your response in a bullet point list' or 'Your response should just list the duration, for example 30 days.'
- Length - Be prescriptive around how long the response should be, either by wordcount or sentence numbers, e.g. less than 200 words, or 3 sentences, or as concise as possible.
Putting this together, an effective prompt could be:
'You are a legal assistant to an in-house legal team, asked to provide information about an MSA. Based on this clause, what are the payment terms and if relevant, what is the process for invoicing. Your response should be limited to 200 words.'