BREXIT: Why your legal team needs AI insights to locate impacted contracts

Why your legal team needs AI insights to locate Brexit impacted contracts and make changes

Britain has now left the EU officially, but how does this impact your organisation’s contracts and agreements? According to the government statistics on EU trade, the EU currently accounts for around 41% of UK exports and 51% of UK imports, so you can see why it’s crucial to adapt to the changes in regulation that have occurred due to Brexit.

How has Brexit impacted contracts?

There are over 600 new UK regulations that can impact every aspect of a business, including location, staffing, operations and sales across borders, duties, tariffs, and taxes. Many organisations now need to update and, in some cases, renegotiate hundreds of agreements. There are many ways contracts are affected, and here’s a summary of some of those impacts: 

  • Territory definitions and locations. Any contracts that reference EU legislation need to be checked because, after the 31st January 2020, any reference to the EU does not include the UK.
  • Currency and pricing.  Currency fluctuations or unforeseen tariffs, duties, or taxes may pose risks.
  • Amendments. Amending agreements could increase the cost and time of doing business.
  • GDPR. Data protection law could change as a result of Brexit. While the UK has agreed to share information freely with the EU, the EU is yet to confirm the ongoing arrangement will be permanently reciprocal.

Digital solutions, such as the DocuSign Agreement Cloud, can help to automate processes and improve the efficiency of contract location, assessment of risk exposure, and negotiation. 

The fastest way to review your contracts is by using artificial intelligence. Being prepared will ensure your business can continue to thrive.

How can artificial intelligence help your legal team update contracts?

Both UK and EU businesses will be affected by Brexit, as will countries worldwide that transact with the UK. It is crucial that companies across EU member states proactively ensure that their contracts align with the regulations of the post-Brexit world. Contract management tools that include AI analytics, such as DocuSign CLM, help legal teams identify and make changes more quickly.

  • DocuSign CLM allows legal, procurement, and sales teams to save time and reduce errors by automating the entire contract lifecycle with document generation, collaboration, workflow, and a central agreement repository.
  • DocuSign Insight allows you to understand what’s in your agreements with AI-powered contract analytics to accelerate review, identify risks and uncover hidden opportunities. The AI-driven tool helps teams to quickly and easily search for specific clauses that are impacted by Brexit legislation, such as territory definitions and locations, currency and pricing, general data protection regulation (GDPR), duties, tariffs, taxes, and more.
  • Agreements can be updated more easily as teams can update contract templates in DocuSign CLM and generate new contracts with just a few clicks.
  • DocuSign CLM allows you to roll out updates across multiple agreements and then send out updated contracts to your relevant third-party partners. 

Evaluating the impact of Brexit on Businesses and Their Agreement Processes

Find how your business agreements might be affected and how to overcome the hurdles that arise. 
Author
Mangesh Bhandarkar
GVP, Product Management
Published
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