Arvato Bertelsmann

Arvato Bertelsmann's legal department faced a bottleneck reviewing data protection agreements (DPAs): only a few experienced lawyers could handle these reviews, usually under significant time pressure, causing delays across the process. Reviewing a single 20-40 page DPA took 45-60 minutes and required specialized expertise, which limited who could take part and slowed the broader contracting workflow.

Arvato implemented Legartis's AI contract review software as a Word add-in, letting both experienced lawyers and non-lawyers perform initial DPA reviews. The AI reads and annotates the contract first, so reviewers can jump straight to flagged critical clauses instead of reading the document from start to finish, guided by company-specific contract playbooks to keep reviews standardized.

The AI produces its initial annotated review in about seven seconds, and overall initial review time for a DPA dropped from 45-60 minutes to roughly 10 minutes. The number of employees able to review DPAs grew from two or three centralized reviewers to seven, expanding review capacity while maintaining standardized quality through contract playbooks.

• Standardized, repetitive contract types like DPAs are strong first candidates for AI-assisted review.
• Pairing AI output with contract playbooks lets non-lawyers perform compliant initial reviews without close supervision.
• Successful rollout depends on bringing all stakeholders on board emotionally and building trust in the software over time, not just solving the technical implementation.