+80% of C-Suite Leaders are Ready for AI Agents to Negotiate and Manage Contracts, According to Icertis Survey

Insights from +1,000 Executives Reveal Contracts are Stealing Time from the C-Suite

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Icertis, the global leader in AI-powered contract intelligence, today published a new survey based on responses from more than 1,000 C-suite executives. 83 percent of leaders said AI agents that manage business relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners are a top priority among AI use cases. Results also revealed that 53 percent believe agents will negotiate customer or supplier deals on behalf of their business within the next year, and an additional 34 percent anticipate this shift in the next 1 – 3 years.

Despite clear enthusiasm for the potential of agentic AI, C-suite trust still comes at a premium:

• 56 percent of business leaders are very concerned about giving AI agents the autonomy to make business decisions without the proper guardrails.

• Leaders pointed to security and privacy threats (40 percent), decisions made without human approval (26 percent), and misinformation caused by inaccurate insights (18 percent) as the top three risks presented by AI agents becoming “coworkers” in their business.

• These insights speak to the mission-critical role of contracts in supporting the +50 percent of leaders whose businesses are already implementing AI agents and the additional 38 percent planning to implement agents by the end of this year.

“The Icertis survey demonstrates that leaders are ready for a future where contracting and commerce happen autonomously, but they need reassurance that agents can operate with trust and accuracy. Accuracy is critical for businesses to become comfortable with increasing automation – and we’re quelling these concerns with the launch of Icertis Vera,” said Sudarshan Chitre, Senior Vice President of AI, Icertis. “Grounding AI’s decisions in the rules of business defined by contracts is the key to maintaining trust while capitalizing on the strategic benefits of AI to drive business performance. Whether you envision autonomy that includes issuing customer discounts in real time, restocking inventory based on fluctuating demand, or adjusting supplier costs according to inflation, contracts are the guardrails that keep AI aligned with the intended outcomes of every business relationship.”

Why are business leaders eager to embrace agent-driven contracting amidst lingering concerns? Survey results show that even in the age of AI, contracts still demand substantial time and resources:

• 40 percent of the C-suite says they spend +10 hours per week reading, reviewing and approving contracts, which totals over 21 days per year – time that could be substantially reduced with contract intelligence.

• 40 percent of C-suite leaders say they have signed a paper contract within the last year.

• More than 50 percent of executives say they review and approve +500 contracts annually. Nearly 20 percent say they review and approve +1,000 contracts annually.

Icertis solves this business challenge by creating a single source of truth for contracts across the enterprise to accelerate review cycles, reinforce compliance, and drive contract performance at scale through the power of AI. Enterprises trust Icertis to carry out the full intention of their commercial agreements with Icertis Vera – a smarter AI for contracts. Built on one of the largest repositories of contract data in the world, Icertis Vera delivers unmatched accuracy through deep contextual understanding of the business relationships captured in commercial agreements.

Survey respondents included C-suite executives at companies with more than 5,000 employees across the US, UK, and India.

Read Agentic Contracting: How Executives Are Reconciling Urgency and Caution in the AI Era

About Icertis

Icertis delivers AI-powered insights and agentic automation to transform static contracts into strategic enterprise advantage. The Icertis Contract Intelligence platform revolutionizes how enterprises manage their customer, supplier, and partner relationships, enabling businesses to grow revenue, control costs, mitigate risk, and ensure compliance. Today, more than one third of the Fortune 100 trust Icertis to realize the full potential of millions of business relationships in more than 90 countries around the world.