Across companies, a contract is viewed as something to be signed, filed away, and neglected until something goes astray. In an event when something goes off track, it is usually a frantic effort to obtain the required documents to recognise the implications for a company. Advance innovation like artificial intelligence is supporting companies to get past the issues when it comes to contracting using AI-based contracting software. By leveraging algorithms on data sets of contracts, it can discover patterns and spins out the different variables, including specific agreement terms, dates, and names of the parties. This empowers businesses to have much better and transparent control over their contracts, which can serve to be very valuable during challenging times, such as an ongoing pandemic. Complex contracts may be scattered across different repositories, locations and sources which is incredibly challenging to manage if done manually.

It would seem that we are going to have a summer slowdown after all. There weren't enough events to pick from last week, so I skipped my recommendations post, and there are only a few for this week but they are worthwhile. On the bright side, I already know there will be event recommendations for next week as well. Don't forget to save your spot in a live webinar I am presenting with ProPurchaser President Rod Sherkin for Supply Chain Now on August 19th: Post COVID-19 Supply Chains: What is Needed to Adapt. If you are planning your webinar schedule beyond this week, I recommend'A Model for Creating a Data-Driven Culture' from Harvard Business Review on August 19th.