If you work internally and you do not treat your supplier contracts as strategic assets, you will sur the most valuable sources of operational insight. In a recent episode of “Notes to My (Legal) Even”, the legal OPS leader Navin Mahavijiyan explained how most legal teams sit on a treasure trove of data without realizing it and what to do about it.
See the full episode here:
Contracts are more than agreements. They dataset.
Seller contracts often live quietly in the background. They are filed and rarely appear unless something goes wrong, or a renewal approves. But as Navin Pointd out, these agreements contain critical information about how a business works, uses and scales.
“One of the things I have come to learn in my career is that the management of your supplier, your supplier, your subcontractor contracts is incredibly critical of the company,” Navin said. “It’s a huge amount of consumption. Being able to trace them – when they expire when you need to have renewal discussions, or just the fact that you have them – is instrumental.”
This is not about building a better restitor. It’s about transforming static documents into live data that smarter business decisions support.
AI helps but only when you know what you need
Navin is a strong spokesman for using a management contract but with a warning. He warns against rushing into a tool just because it can extract a lot of data. The key is clarity in the purpose.
“When you’re just beginning, the typical movement is to let our contracts dump them in a tool and get the seller’s AI analysis,” he said. “It’s really easy to do. But it can get too much.”
Start instead with your priorities. What do you actually need to know to support your business? Renewing dates? Payment terms? Auto-renewed clauses? Navin recommends building a shortlist with must-have data points first.
“Have your own checklist of what data points you want to collect from your contracts,” he said. “Then you also know what to train in AI.”
Searchable is good. Contextual is better.
Scanning and uploading contracts in the central system may be able to check the “digitized” check box, but that’s not enough. Navin Stéssed that legal teams have to go beyond search and focus on usabinity.
This included setting up warnings, triggers and workflows that recently help stakeholders take steps, whether it is procurement that needs to renegotiate a contract or financing that needs to plan for upcoming obligations.
“You can use [AI] To analyze all contracts, you need to pull huge transformers into data out of it, make them searchable and automate warnings and tracking, “Navin said.” The right people in different parts of your business can be notified when something the contract is about to expire or when language creates risk. “
Not all contract data live in the contract
One of Smartst Points Navin made is that some of the most useful contract data is not in the contract itself. Details such as supplier contacts, internal owners and business context often live outside the document, but they are just as important.
“There are elements of the contract information that are not in the contract itself,” he explained. “This is where AI cannot help unless you build it in the contract review process.”
Legal OPS teams need a process to catch and connect these metadata. Intake forms, playbooks and templates can go far by closing this gap and making the life cycle more complete.
Too much information can be just as bad
As the contract system becomes more powerful, there is a temptation to send out all parts of data to any stakeholder. NAVIN SURETY -GAIST This approach.
“Finance will know very different things than your delivery people or your accounting team,” he said. “You have to understand their cadence how often they need to be notified, and craft warnings that are robust and unique to each group.”
The goal is not to make all expert contract. The goal is to provide the right insight to the right person at the right time.
Legal Ops can lead the shift
For too long, supplier contracts have been treated as legal household. But as Navin made clear, they are a window into how your business is using, risking, renewing and growing. With the right combination of tools and processes, legal teams can transform the window into control panel.
This is more than a technical upgrade. It’s a mindset shift.
The return on investments is not just cleaner items. It is better visibility, faster action and greater adaptation to the company. Seller contracts are already sitting there waiting to be unlocked.
Ready to start digging?
Olga V. Mack is the CEO of TERMERCOUTAn AI-Power Contract Contract certification platform that accelerates returned and eliminates friction by certifying contracts such as fair, balanced and market-respons. She was a serial CEO and legal technical director, and previously led a company through the successful acquisition of Lexisnexis. Olga is also one Fellow at Codex, Stanford Center for Legal ITand the generative AI editor at Law.mit. She is a visionary executive who transforms, how we law – how justice systems are built, experienced and trusted. Olga Teaches in Berkeley LawWide readings and advises companies of all sizes as well as boards and institutions. An award -winning General Attorney turned the builder, she also leads early stages that are included Virtual Gabby (Better Parent Plan),,,,,,,, Product Law,,,,,,,, ESI FLOWand Remarks to my (legal) selfEach reconsider the practice and business of law through technology, data and human -centered design. She has written The increase in product lawyers,,,,,,,, Legal operations in AI and data,,,,,,,, Value blockchainand Come on boardWith Visual IQ for Attorneys (ABA) upcoming. Olga is a 6x Tedx speaker and has been recognized as a Silicon Valley woman with influence and an ABSTA woman in Legal Tech. Her work genimages people’s relationship with the law-what makes it more accessible, inclusive, data lectures and adapted how the world actually works. She also hosts the notes for my (legal) even podcast (streaming on Spotify,,,,,,,, Apple Podcastsand YouTube), and her insight appears regularly in Forbes, Bloomberg Law, Newsweek, Venturebeat, ACC dock and over the law. She served her BA and JD from UC Berkeley. Follow her on LinkedIn and x @olgavmack.