Our Future Jobs: AI and Other 21st Century Contracting Tools (Including Some from Before the 1st Century)

The seemingly sudden appearance of ChatGPT has rattled many contract drafters. In fact, it’s rattled a lot of professionals who make their living by stringing together complete sentences.

Do artificial general intelligence (AGI) tools like ChatGPT threaten our careers? And how can contract drafters take advantage of those tools?

This session will explore the likely impact of new technologies on contract drafters, including both lawyers and contract managers. Those new technologies go beyond AGI.

They include:

• Narrower forms of AI focused on contracts
• “Smart contracts”
• Simpler-seeming tools like video conferencing systems
• The contract drafter’s #1 tech tool (still): redlining.

We’ll also talk about some still-vital tools from before the 1st century.

This is not a session on contract-lifecycle management tools or the broader world of procurement or sales. We’ll focus specifically on tools for contract drafting and negotiation.