01 the business
Engineering consultancy
60 staff, many partnership talks
Sales and partnership teams need NDAs before serious conversations, and each one waits for someone senior. People copy last month's NDA and forget to change names or governing law. Deals stall over a routine document.
02 before
The problem
Sales and partnership teams need NDAs before every serious conversation, and each one waits in a queue for someone senior. People copy last month's NDA and forget to change the party names or governing law. Deals stall over a document that should take minutes.
- NDAs wait days in a queue.
- Copied NDAs carry the wrong party names.
- Signed copies are hard to find later.
03 the build
What the AI does
- Step 1: Offers a short form inside HubSpot, Salesforce or Slack: counterparty, mutual or one-way, purpose and country.
- Step 2: Looks up the company's legal name and registered address from your CRM and checks them with the requester.
- Step 3: Builds the NDA from your approved template and the governing law that fits the counterparty's location.
- Step 4: Flags any requested change to the standard wording and routes it to legal instead of drafting it.
- Step 5: Sends the clean NDA for signature through DocuSign and files the signed copy against the CRM record.
paused: waiting for a person to approve
How it was put together
- Offered a short form in the CRM and Slack: counterparty, mutual or one-way, purpose and country.
- Looked up the legal name and registered address and checked them with the requester.
- Built the NDA from the approved template with the right governing law.
- Sent it for e-signature and filed the signed copy against the CRM record.
04 human in the loop
Where a person stays in charge
Your lawyer approves the template and its allowed options once. Any NDA that departs from that template, or any counterparty markup, goes to legal for review before signing.
- The lawyer approves the template and its options once.
- Any departure from the template or counterparty markup goes to legal.
- The tool never drafts non-standard wording.
05 rollout
From kickoff to live in 3 weeks
- Week 1Lawyer approves the template and options.
- Week 2Build the form and test with sales.
- Week 3Make it the only way to request a standard NDA.
06 after
What changes
Standard NDAs go out the same day they are asked for, and every one uses wording your lawyer has approved. Legal only sees the NDAs that actually need judgement.
Assume 30 NDAs a month at 30 minutes of senior time each, falling to zero for standard ones.
30 × 30 minutes = 15 hours a month of senior time, plus days of waiting on every deal.
What to measure
- Time from request to NDA sent.
- NDAs needing legal review.
- Errors in party details.
- Signed NDAs filed against records.
07 evidence
What the research says
The average business loses almost 9% of contract value each year through poor contract management; the best lose about 3%, the worst 15% or more.
08 lessons
Mistakes to avoid
- Allowing free-text edits. Keep options fixed.
- Wrong governing law. Make it a rule, not a guess.
- Not filing signed copies.
09 questions
Common questions
- What if the other side sends their own NDA?
- That goes to legal, or to contract review against your playbook.
- Which signing tools work?
- DocuSign most often, and others with an API.