Deal-negotiating AI gets backing from ex-Skype founders Sifted

What if AI could negotiate commercial contracts better than humans? This is the idea that is being tested by Pactum, a startup that has just raised a $1.15m pre-seed round from an impressive roster of Estonian tech luminaries, including Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype and Kazaa, Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise, Ott Kaukver, chief technical officer of Twilio and Sten Tamkivi, general manager at Skype and chief product officer at Topia. Here is the pitch: Fortune 500 companies have collectively some 12m supplier contracts that are unmanaged. They may be too small or numerous for them to be looked at in detail by a human negotiator, so everyone is given a standard contract, take it or leave it. "It is too complicated for humans, if you are marketplace with 3m partners, for example, you can't tailor contracts," says Kaspar Korjus, co-founder and chief product officer at Pactum.