AI Contract Generator for In-House Teams: From Deal Brief to Reviewable First Draft
Josh Bertini, Head of Growth•Published
An AI contract generator turns deal instructions and source documents into a first draft. For in-house teams starting from approved company paper, we recommend GC AI, our legal intelligence platform for companies. You can create a Word draft and inspect proposed revisions in Easy Edit. Counsel then checks the source terms, and the business owner resolves open commercial decisions before circulation.
We built GC AI for in-house legal teams. Our CEO and co-founder, Cecilia Ziniti, was a general counsel three times, at Anki, BloomTech, and Replit, and also worked in-house at Amazon and Cruise. That in-house background matters to this workflow: a first contract draft has to keep the source documents, unresolved business terms, and lawyer review visible.
Today, 2,100+ legal teams, from solo GCs to public company law departments across 45+ countries, use GC AI. Customers include TIME, Wayfair, and SKIMS.
Our enterprise legal AI platform’s chat workflow creates a formatted Word document from a request and opens it in GC AI’s Easy Edit, our document editor. Counsel can apply, dismiss, or edit each proposed change, then download a .docx with redlines preserved. A lawyer still checks the complete agreement before it goes to a counterparty.
Consider a sales team that needs a statement of work (SOW) under an executed master services agreement (MSA). Counsel can provide the approved SOW template, deal brief, and MSA, then use our chat workflow to prepare a first draft for review. GC AI can prepare the draft; the team’s intake, business approvals, and signature process still determine when it is ready to circulate or sign.
Build a Source Pack for AI Contract Generation
A useful first draft starts by telling GC AI which documents supply the deal terms and which document takes priority if they conflict.
Have legal supply the current approved SOW template, executed MSA, and clause standards. The business owner supplies the deal brief and approved commercial schedules. Name a legal owner to keep the templates and review positions current, and label the sources so a one-time negotiated exception stays specific to its original deal.
In a fictional six-month SOW, the business brief specifies $60,000 over three milestones and Net 30, while the approved pricing schedule says Net 45. An older signed SOW contains a liability cap negotiated for that deal alone. Keep that exception out of the new draft unless the authorized legal and business owners approve it, and ask the business owner to resolve the payment conflict.
While the payment decision remains open, instruct GC AI to bracket the term, identify the conflicting sources, and add it to an open-issues list. Keep the draft internal until the authorized owner resolves the conflict.
- Parties: Confirm exact legal names, addresses, affiliates, and signature entities.
- Commercial terms: State scope, fees, payment milestones, term, renewal, and delivery dates.
- Governing documents: Identify the MSA, order form, security exhibit, data terms, or other documents that control the deal.
- Decision owners: Name the business owner and who can approve a deviation.
- Open facts: List the missing answers for the business owner or counsel to resolve.
How In-House Teams Generate a Reviewable Contract With AI
With the source documents and open issues identified, ask GC AI to create the Word draft using your approved template. Specify which source governs each material term and ask it to flag missing facts and conflicts. Follow our document-generation guide for the steps in chat.
Use a prompt that tells GC AI which documents control, what to draft, and which decisions must remain unresolved. For example:
Example prompt
Use the approved SOW form and executed MSA. Draft the scope and three milestones from the deal brief. Do not change the MSA’s liability or data terms. The payment schedule says Net 45 while the brief says Net 30; leave payment timing bracketed and list both sources for counsel to resolve. Create a Word document.
Treat the generated Word file as a draft to verify, not as proof that every term came from the right source. If you request an open-issues list, check each item against the sources. Confirm that the SOW includes the template’s required sections, schedules, and signature blocks.
For this SOW, confirm that the payment term remains bracketed and compare the drafted liability clause with the approved template and MSA. If the draft carries over the older SOW's negotiated cap, propose the approved language and route any requested deviation to the authorized legal owner.
Review an AI-Generated Contract in Easy Edit
After checking the draft against its sources, use Easy Edit to revise it. Request one change at a time and inspect the tracked redline before accepting it. You can also make manual edits and download the reviewed .docx with redlines preserved.
In the fictional SOW, suppose the business owner approves moving the first delivery milestone from September 15 to September 30. Ask GC AI to revise that date and flag any other dates or obligations that depend on it.
If delivery triggers the invoice, check whether the revised milestone also changes invoice timing. Keep the payment conflict open until the authorized owner decides it.
Before the draft leaves legal, use these checks:
- Confirm the required sections, exhibits, and signature blocks, and check that the SOW correctly incorporates the MSA.
- Compare scope, fees, dates, and delivery obligations against the approved brief.
- Review defined terms, cross-references, remedies, liability, data provisions, and consistency with the MSA.
- Have the business owner or authorized lawyer decide each open fact or deviation.
- Save the reviewed Word file and record who approved it before it leaves legal.
GC AI for Word supports drafting, review, and redlining inside Microsoft Word. Our Playbooks apply your company's standard positions during contract review.
If your team uses a Playbook, run it as a separate review step and confirm that it reflects the current standards for this agreement. Watch GC AI compile Microsoft Word comments into a table of issues for review.
Resolve the Business Decisions Before Approval
Prepare a short approval note that identifies the proposed terms, the open payment decision, and any departures from company standards. Counsel recommends which terms to accept, negotiate, or reject; the business owner confirms whether the delivery and invoice commitments work for the deal.
CZ and Friends, GC AI’s podcast hosted by CEO and co-founder Cecilia Ziniti, a three-time general counsel, features conversations with legal and business leaders. In one episode, Lauren Anderson, Senior Counsel at Wayfair, described her team’s first-pass contract-review process:
We use GC AI often. We've implemented a process where you rely on it for a first pass. We want to get rid of the mundane, repetitive tasks and ... be more involved in the business.
Her team directs more attorney attention to agreements with greater business or operational risk.
In one example, tighter liability language for critical software still left the business to decide what it would do if the software failed. For the generated SOW, counsel checks the available remedy if delivery fails, while the business owner confirms whether the milestone and invoice schedule are workable.
If you're still choosing a tool, compare contract drafting software. For the broader workflow across contracts, memos, and other legal documents, see AI legal document drafting.
In a personalized GC AI walkthrough, bring a nonconfidential deal brief, approved SOW template, and governing MSA. Check whether the draft keeps the payment conflict open, inspect a tracked revision, and identify who must approve the remaining terms. Use that reviewed SOW to decide whether to adopt GC AI for your department's first-draft workflow.
