If you've ever tried to find something specific in a contract management system, you know how fragile search can feel.

You type a phrase.
You hope the wording matches exactly.
You scroll through results that are technically correct but practically useless.

AI Search in Concord Horizon was designed to fix that problem, not by abandoning keyword search entirely, but by adding a second, more powerful way to find information. Instead of forcing you to guess how your contracts are written, Horizon lets you search by meaning as well as by text .

That distinction matters more than it might sound at first.

The problem with keyword-only search

Traditional CLM search is built around exact matches. It works well when you know precisely what you are looking for and how it appears in the document.

For example:

• You know the contract name

• You know the counterparty name

• You know the exact clause heading

• You know the defined term used in the agreement

In those cases, keyword search is fast and reliable.

The problem is that most real questions do not start that way.

You might want to find:

• Contracts with unusual termination rights

• Agreements where liability is not capped

• Vendor contracts that shift data residency obligations

• Customer agreements that deviate from standard payment terms

Those concepts can be expressed dozens of different ways across contracts. Traditional keyword search forces you to guess which phrasing matters most, and it often misses relevant agreements simply because they use different language.

How AI Search expands what you can ask

AI Search in Horizon adds natural language search alongside traditional keyword search. Instead of matching only text, it looks for meaning across your contract portfolio.

That means you can search using the way you would actually describe the issue, such as:

• Contracts with one sided termination clauses

• Agreements that expose us to high indemnity risk

• Deals where payment terms exceed net 60

• Contracts that auto renew without notice

You do not need to know how those ideas are phrased in each document. Horizon analyzes the underlying language and returns agreements that are conceptually relevant, even if the wording is different .

This is especially useful when you are exploring a problem rather than verifying something you already understand.

Keyword search and AI search work together

One important point is that Horizon does not replace keyword search. It gives you both options and lets you choose the right tool for the job.

You might use keyword search when:

• You need to find a specific agreement quickly

• You are validating a known clause or term

• You want deterministic, exact matches

• You are confident the data is structured consistently

You might use AI Search when:

• You are investigating a risk or pattern

• You want examples rather than a complete list

• You are not sure how something is phrased

• You want to explore without building a report

This dual approach lets you move fluidly between precision and discovery, instead of forcing everything through the same narrow lens.

What AI Search actually returns

Unlike traditional search tools that dump you into a table of results, AI Search in Horizon is designed to support investigation.

When you run a natural language search, you can expect:

• A relevance ranked set of contracts

• Context about why each result was included

• Snippets that highlight the relevant language

• The ability to follow up with additional questions

You are not just handed documents. You are given a starting point for understanding an issue across your portfolio.

That distinction matters when time is limited and the question is ambiguous.

Why this changes day-to-day work

AI Search reduces the friction that often stops people from asking better questions about their contracts.

Without it, you may hesitate to explore because you know it will turn into:

• Manual reading

• Repeated exports

• Back and forth with legal ops

• Or building a report just to answer a one off question

With AI Search, exploratory questions become cheap to ask.

You can investigate quickly, get oriented, and decide whether something warrants deeper analysis. In many cases, the initial search is enough to inform a decision.

Following the thread with conversation

One of the strengths of AI Search in Horizon is how naturally it blends into conversation.

You can start with a broad search, then refine it by asking follow up questions like:

• Show me only vendor contracts

• Focus on agreements signed after 2022

• Which of these are high value

• Are any with strategic partners

You're not starting over each time. The system understands that you are continuing the same line of inquiry and narrows the results accordingly.

This makes search feel less like a one shot query and more like an investigation you can steer as you learn.

Bringing search into other AI tools

Through Model Context Protocol integration, Horizon can expose AI Search capabilities inside external AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude.

That means you can explore your contracts while:

• Preparing for a negotiation

• Drafting an internal memo

• Analyzing risk alongside financial data

• Working in tools your team already uses

Instead of copying data out of your CLM system, you bring the search to where thinking happens.

What changes when search actually works

When search becomes flexible and forgiving, behavior changes.

People ask more questions.
They explore instead of avoiding uncertainty.
They rely less on specialists for basic insight.

Over time, this leads to better visibility and fewer surprises, not because everyone became a contract expert, but because the system stopped getting in the way.

A more realistic way to find what matters

AI Search in Horizon is not about being clever. It is about acknowledging how contracts are actually written and how people actually look for information.

Sometimes you need exact matches.
Sometimes you need to search by meaning.

By supporting both, Horizon gives you a way to find answers without guessing how the system wants you to ask the question.

That may sound small, but if you spend any real time working with contracts, you know how big that difference feels.