How to Have AI Review a Word Document for Legal Work

To have AI review a Word document for legal work, open it in a supported Word add-in or attach it to an approved AI tool. Explain which party you represent and what you need reviewed, ask for findings tied to the contract language, and follow up on specific issues before requesting edits. Check each change before sending the draft.

GC AI is a turnkey legal intelligence platform for in-house counsel, trusted by more than 2,100 legal teams. That includes 300+ public companies and teams at SKIMS, TIME, Wayfair, Lockheed Martin, and Riot Games.

For contract review, GC AI brings the analysis and proposed edits into Word. At Jasper, Hayley McAllister, Senior Counsel and Head of Commercial Legal, moved her contract review and redlining into GC AI's Word plugin:

Once the Word plugin rolled out, I pretty much exclusively started using it for all of my redlining and contract review.

Start an AI Review of Your Word Document

Save a working copy of the current agreement. Choose a tool your organization has approved for the matter and its data requirements, then confirm whether you will review the document in Word or in a chat that accepts files.

Use this sequence to begin the review:

1. Provide the documents: Open the .docx agreement in a supported Word add-in, or attach it to a document-capable chat. Include the schedules and amendments that govern the deal, and identify any missing documents.

2. Set the review instructions: Name the party you represent, the deal stage, governing law, and commercial priorities. Supply preferred terms, approved fallbacks, and issues to escalate. Specify the output you need, such as an issue table, proposed language, or redline.

3. Inspect the findings: Ask for the supporting document, clause, and quoted language for each material issue. Compare the answer with the source, including relevant definitions and schedules. Distinguish express terms from interpretation.

4. Ask a focused follow-up: Work through one issue at a time. Ask how a provision affects the deal, whether another clause changes the answer, or what language would implement your approved position.

5. Apply and check the edits: Review the proposed changes in Word and apply the ones you approve. Identify who must decide any remaining legal issue or business exception and who will approve the outgoing draft.

How to Use AI to Review a Word Document: Six Legal Workflows

Choose the workflow that fits the document and stage of the matter. Orientation and redlining help with a new agreement; counterparty and comment review help with a returned draft. Use policy research when the law may require a revision, and playbook review when you have a reusable standard. Adapt the illustrative prompts to your matter.

1. Orientation: Map the obligations, rights, and deadlines.

2. Redlining: Apply your company's approved positions.

3. Research: Verify a legal change before revising a policy.

4. Counterparty review: Assess returned changes and prepare a response.

5. Comment compilation: Group feedback by owner and next action.

6. Playbook review: Apply a reusable standard across the agreement.

Orient Yourself to the Contract

Start with a table of the agreement's obligations, rights, and deadlines so you can see which terms need closer review. This illustrative prompt takes the customer's perspective:

Example prompt:

The company is the customer. Review this agreement and the attached schedules. Return a table of material obligations and rights, with the responsible party, deadline or trigger, and supporting document and clause. Separate express terms from interpretation. Flag missing referenced documents and conflicting terms.

Use the table to investigate a specific issue. For an automatic renewal clause, ask what notice the company must give to prevent renewal and whether a schedule changes that deadline. Request the language supporting the answer. If the provision conflicts with your approved position against automatic renewal, ask for a proposed revision and any related changes. Check the notice clause, definitions, and schedules before applying the edit. If the business wants to accept renewal, route that exception to its authorized owner.

Redline From Your Company's Perspective

Give AI the terms you want in the agreement and ask for edits that implement them. For a software-as-a-service (SaaS) agreement, those instructions might cover payment, renewal, termination, liability, indemnification, and ownership. The positions in this illustrative prompt require counsel's approval for the specific deal:

Example prompt:

Redline this SaaS agreement from the customer's perspective. Apply these approved positions: Net 45 payment terms; payment by check or ACH; no automatic renewal; a term of one year or less; no vendor termination for convenience; uncapped liability for data breaches, IP infringement, and gross negligence; vendor indemnification for confidentiality, data protection, and contract breaches; and company ownership of customizations and deliverables. Flag conflicts with other clauses and any issue that lacks an approved fallback.

Review each proposed change in Word before accepting it. A carve-out in the limitation of liability clause may also require changes to damages exclusions or the indemnity procedure. Read those provisions together, then ask for a short explanation of each material revision for the counterparty. Route payment terms or other commercial exceptions to the business owner authorized to approve them.

Research a Policy Change, Then Redline in Word

When a policy revision depends on a change in the law, establish what applies before editing. Give a research-capable tool the current policy, its last review date, the covered jurisdictions, and the relevant company facts. Use the findings to decide which sections need changes in Word.

Find the change: Ask for primary authorities, effective dates, and the policy sections that may need revision. Replace the date and employee scope in this illustrative request:

Example prompt:

Review the attached U.S. anti-discrimination and harassment policy, last updated in March 2022. Research legal changes since that date that may apply to the employees and jurisdictions in the attached scope. Organize findings by policy heading, cite original sources and effective dates, and list the facts needed to determine applicability.

Decide what applies: Open the cited authorities and check their text, status, and scope. Confirm which changes create an obligation for your company. Ask the responsible HR or business owner for missing facts, such as employee locations, before approving the revision list.

Revise the policy: Use the verified research and approved instructions to request proposed edits. Compare each change with the authority and revision list before applying it in Word. Save the approved policy with its source record, review date, and any unresolved question.

Review Counterparty Changes

When the counterparty returns a draft, provide your previous version and current negotiating instructions. Ask AI to explain what changed and prepare a response using your preferred positions or approved fallbacks.

Example prompt:

The company is the customer. Compare the vendor's returned draft with the company's last approved version and attached negotiating positions. For each material change, identify the clause, explain its effect, and propose a response using the preferred position or approved fallback. Flag missing documents and changes outside the instructions. Identify decisions that require legal or business approval.

Read changes to definitions, schedules, and cross-references alongside the main clauses. Compare the proposed responses with your instructions and identify where you need a new legal or business decision.

Use the checked findings to draft your negotiation response. Explain the position you can accept, the change you want, and any decision still needed from the business. Confirm that the explanation matches the redline you intend to return.

Compile and Summarize Document Comments

Questions from Finance, IT, and other reviewers can sit in different parts of the document. Ask AI to group the comments by responsible person, with the relevant clause, question, and next action for each owner. Use the result to prepare follow-up messages and your own task list.

Compare the compiled output with the open comments before sharing it. Keep conflicting recommendations visible, confirm the recipients, and review the proposed wording. You decide which comments stay internal and which belong in the counterparty draft.

Run a Playbook Review

For recurring agreements, give AI a written review standard: preferred terms, acceptable fallbacks, and issues to escalate. Ask it to compare each relevant clause with that standard. For each deviation or missing provision, request the applicable standard, a proposed edit, and any decision needed before you can accept the change.

For a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), that could mean checking permitted use, exclusions, duration, and return or destruction obligations against your approved confidentiality positions. Review the findings before requesting edits, and keep any gap in the instructions open for counsel or the business owner to decide.

After the matter, have the responsible owner approve any fallback or instruction worth reusing. A negotiated exception should become part of the standard only when the team intends to use it again.

How GC AI Supports Your Word Review

GC AI for Word keeps the review conversation beside the agreement. Use the sidebar to ask about a clause or request redlines based on the positions you supplied. Review the proposed tracked changes in the document, where you can accept or reject each edit.

GC AI's Exact Quote feature lets you open quoted source language and inspect it in context. For policy updates, GC AI supports web research in Word and in its web app, so you can continue the research conversation beside the policy when you are ready to revise it.

Cameron Clark, Head of Legal at Arc'teryx, uses GC AI to review contract feedback and draft replies:

What used to take an hour, like reviewing contract feedback and drafting a reply, now takes ten minutes, and the results are better.

Turn Document Comments Into Follow-Ups

GC AI's (Word) Comment Compiler turns document feedback into draft follow-up emails and a personal to-do list. It groups comments by responsible person, so you can review each message alongside the questions for Finance, IT, or another owner.

Watch Phil Lamothe, a Solutions Attorney at GC AI, turn comments in a Word document into draft follow-up emails:

Apply Approved Standards With Playbooks

GC AI's Playbooks let you apply a defined review standard across the document. Prebuilt options cover NDAs, data processing agreements, SaaS master services agreements, and commercial-purchase master services agreements. You can also build a custom Playbook from templates, negotiated agreements, or other documents.

Check a prebuilt Playbook's standards before using it as your company's review position. GC AI's Skill Library stores reusable legal instructions, so the workflow your team approves can become the starting point for the next review.

Set Up GC AI for Word and Add Supporting Files

Install the add-in using the GC AI for Word installation guide, then open it from Word's Add-ins menu and sign in to GC AI. Open your .docx agreement and enter the review request in the sidebar.

GC AI for Word works with one open .docx document at a time. Attach supporting files or use a project when the agreement depends on schedules, amendments, or background materials. Identify which documents govern and flag any missing attachment before asking for a conclusion.

Convert legacy .doc files to .docx before using the add-in. After a PDF-to-Word conversion, compare the text and formatting with the original. Large documents are subject to the model's context window, and complex tables or embedded objects may be misread. GC AI for Word cannot reformat the document, so inspect the layout and any errors introduced while applying redlines or comments.

For a review spanning PDFs, email chains, and multiple agreements, use the broader AI contract review process to assemble the source set and prepare findings, an editable redline, and a business recommendation.

Check the Draft Before You Send It

Resolve comments that have an approved answer and assign the remaining questions to the person who can decide them. Our guide to redlining in Word covers the Compare and clean-copy checks before a draft goes out.

Before sending, check:

• Material issues: Confirm that the review addresses the terms that affect the deal.

• Sources: Check that quotations and references support each recommendation.

• Redlines: Confirm that the approved positions appear correctly and that definitions and cross-references still work.

• Comments: Keep internal discussion separate from approved counterparty explanations.

• Open decisions: Record missing documents, exceptions, and unresolved questions with an owner and next action.

• Outgoing version: Check the draft, attachments, and recipients.

Save the approved version and decision record under your team's process. To see how GC AI handles a review, bring an agreement and your negotiating positions to a walkthrough. Ask to see how a clause finding becomes a tracked change and a draft response to the counterparty.