Adobe enhances Acrobat AI with contract intelligence to streamline enterprise workflows

Adobe has introduced contract intelligence features in Acrobat AI Assistant, targeting enterprises and professionals dealing with complex agreements. The new capabilities, announced on Tuesday, enable users to analyze legal terms, compare multiple contracts, and verify key details with AI-generated summaries while maintaining data security.

The expansion comes as businesses struggle with contract management inefficiencies, which can lead to financial and operational risks. According to an Adobe Acrobat survey, 64% of small business owners have avoided signing contracts due to uncertainty over terms, while nearly 70% of consumers admitted to signing agreements without fully understanding them.

“The new generative AI features can help customers grasp complex terms and spot differences between multiple agreements so they can better understand and verify the information in these important documents — faster and easier,” Adobe said in a statement.

Adobe claimed that the Acrobat AI Assistant “supplements LLM technologies with the same AI and machine learning models behind Liquid Mode” to provide a highly accurate understanding of document structure and content, which enhances the quality and reliability of AI Assistant’s outputs.

For enterprises handling high volumes of vendor contracts, purchase orders, and legal documents, these challenges could translate into financial and operational risks.

“This transformation will significantly impact several key areas,” said Kartikey Kaushal, senior analyst at Everest Group. “Automated contract drafting will evolve to create complex agreements with enhanced accuracy and consistency. AI-powered negotiation assistance will streamline the redlining process by automatically suggesting revisions aligned with organizational policies and historical data. Compliance monitoring will shift to a more proactive approach, with AI continuously scanning contracts for potential risks and regulatory concerns.”

“Additionally,” Kaushal added, “legal review cycles will be reduced from weeks to hours through advanced document analysis and risk assessment.”

The new contract intelligence features will be available on desktop, web, and mobile platforms. Both free Adobe Reader and paid Acrobat users can access Acrobat AI Assistant as an add-on subscription for $4.99 per month, Adobe announced in the statement.

AI-driven contract intelligence for business efficiency

With AI integration becoming a critical component of enterprise workflows, Adobe’s Acrobat AI Assistant will now offer advanced contract intelligence capabilities, allowing businesses to extract key terms, detect discrepancies across multiple contracts, and verify information with AI-generated summaries backed by citations.

“Customers open billions of contracts in Adobe Acrobat each month, and AI can be a game changer in helping simplify their experience,” Abhigyan Modi, senior vice president of Adobe Document Cloud, said in the statement. “We are introducing new capabilities to deliver contract intelligence in Adobe AI Assistant, making it easier for customers to understand and compare these complex documents and providing citations to help them verify responses, all while keeping their data safe.”

These enhancements are particularly relevant for finance teams reviewing sales contracts, legal teams managing compliance, and procurement departments assessing vendor agreements. Marketers and business executives can also use the AI assistant to analyze partnership contracts and service-level agreements without requiring legal expertise.

Addressing key business challenges

Adobe’s contract intelligence features aim to solve several long-standing challenges in enterprise contract management. One of the primary advantages is reducing contract review time.

With AI-powered summaries and automatic extraction of key terms, businesses can quickly assess obligations, deadlines, and potential risks without manually sifting through lengthy agreements, the statement added.

“For a manpower and consulting firm, contract management is a critical yet time-consuming process, involving agreements with corporate clients, independent consultants, and regulatory compliance bodies,” said Shalu Bindlish, director at Advaita Bedanta Consultants. “AI-powered solutions like Adobe’s Acrobat AI Assistant could streamline this by summarizing key clauses, identifying discrepancies, and ensuring consistency across multiple contracts. This could enhance efficiency in negotiating terms, managing service-level agreements, and ensuring compliance with labor laws across different regions.”

Ensuring compliance and accuracy is another critical aspect.

The AI-driven comparison tool, Adobe claimed, enables organizations to track changes between contract versions, helping to detect inconsistencies and discrepancies before finalizing agreements. This minimizes legal risks and prevents costly errors.

“However”, Bindlish cautioned, “while AI can accelerate contract analysis, it may not fully capture industry-specific nuances or evolving legal frameworks. A human review layer remains crucial to validate AI-driven insights and mitigate risks in high-stakes workforce and consulting agreements.”

Additionally, as per the statement, Adobe’s solution claims to enhance collaboration and workflow integration. Enterprises can securely share contracts with stakeholders, request electronic signatures, and complete the approval process within the Acrobat platform.

This integration eliminates the need for multiple tools, making contract management more efficient and streamlined for teams handling high volumes of agreements, Adobe said in the statement.

Enterprise-grade AI with strong data security

As concerns over data privacy in AI applications continue to rise, Adobe has emphasized its commitment to security. Acrobat AI Assistant, the company claimed, operates within Adobe’s AI Ethics framework, ensuring that customer data is not used for AI training and remains protected from third-party access.

Experts, however, note that AI-powered contract management introduces compliance risks, particularly in highly regulated industries.

“AI-powered Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) systems raise compliance and legal concerns related to data privacy, regulatory adherence, bias, and liability, particularly in regulated industries such as banking, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, and legal,” added Kaushal. “These systems process sensitive contractual information, heightening risks under laws like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and SOX, which impose stringent data protection and access control requirements.”

Kaushal also pointed out that AI-generated contract recommendations could introduce legal uncertainties. “AI-generated contract recommendations may also lack legal accountability, leading to disputes if incorrect terms are applied. Additionally, AI models trained on biased or outdated data can introduce contractual inconsistencies and unfair terms, increasing litigation risks. Enterprises, therefore, emphasize transparency and explainability to gauge the effectiveness of AI-generated response.”

Balancing AI efficiency with caution

Adobe’s AI-driven contract intelligence is positioned as a transformative tool for businesses looking to streamline workflows and mitigate legal risks. However, as AI’s role in contract management expands, organizations must balance automation with human oversight to ensure compliance, accuracy, and accountability.

With contract complexity increasing across industries, AI-powered solutions offer a potential path to efficiency — but experts warn that their effectiveness will depend on how well enterprises integrate AI with existing legal and compliance frameworks.