Prediction: By 2030, executives will no longer read contracts before signing them.
Prediction: By 2030, executives will no longer read contracts before signing them.
Here’s how I know that… and why it’s a good thing.
First off, let’s be real: When a 30-page agreement lands in your CEO’s inbox, do you actually think they read the whole thing?
Of course not. They skim it, or get a lawyer to look at it, or they just trust the person who sent it, and sign the damn thing.
We all know this. But whenever I bring up the fact that CEOs don’t need to read contracts, people look horrified. “But what about the risks?” they ask.
The real risk, from a CEO’s perspective, is wasting time. They’ve already delegated contract drafting and review to other people, because it’s not their job. And if paragraph 17.4.3 contains a typo, it’s not the CEO’s neck that’s on the chopping block. Because that’s someone else’s responsibility.
So when I tell you most execs will be using AI to review contracts, and won’t read them at all by 2030, I hope it’s clear that this won’t be a major change. It’ll just be a slight adjustment to the reality we already live in.
The only thing that’s really changing is our willingness to acknowledge this reality and build better systems around it.
At Concord, our internal data shows that 90 percent of contracts are signed without a single redline. No negotiation. ZERO.
The vast majority of contracts are just standardized templates that one or both parties don’t read at all.
That doesn’t mean contract language isn’t important. It means contracts are becoming more standardized, because humans don’t take the time to read them.
The next logical step is for AI to draft and review the contracts that humans don’t want to read.
Here’s what 2030 will look like:
- AI will be the first reviewer of every contract, and will flag anomalies when a human needs to step in.
- Execs will review term sheets that show all the business parameters they need to review.
- Contracts will be both simpler and more standardized than they are now, as AI pushes us toward more efficient terms.
The new framework won’t be about taking human judgment out of the equation. It’s about focusing human attention where it adds value, and saving time when it doesn’t.
This trend mirrors what we’ve already seen with CFOs taking ownership of contract processes from legal teams. It’s not that legal expertise isn’t valuable, but that it should be concentrated on truly complex negotiations, not routine agreements.
What’s your perspective? Are you still reading every contract word-for-word, or have you already started using alternative approaches to manage risk more efficiently?
Matt Lhoumeau is the CEO and co-founder of Concord, a leading provider of Agreement Intelligence solutions. Concord empowers growing businesses to make smarter operational decisions by unlocking actionable insights from contracts, and is trusted by over 1,500 companies worldwide.
