This project walks through the MVP delivery of ContractAI, an AI-powered contract negotiation platform I helped design for App Orchid and BP. Each section below uses visuals from the original pitch deck to highlight the process and outcomes

ContractAI

Client

App Orchid Inc.

Role

UI, UX, Visual Design, Interaction

Timeline

Aug 2019 - Sept 2022

Contract negotiations, especially in the SaaS space, were taking far too long and averaged 92 days per contract. The existing process was manual, email-based, and inconsistent across procurement managers. Legal teams were bottlenecks, redlines came late in the process, and there was no clear system in place to review and respond to edits. This not only delayed timelines but also introduced risk and inefficiency at scale.

We built an AI-powered contract negotiation platform that supported both procurement and supplier teams. Procurement could initiate and monitor agreements in real time, with clear visibility into status, risks, and proposed edits. On the supplier side, users could review and respond to contracts using pre-approved legal language, collaborate with their teams, and finalize agreements with minimal legal back-and-forth. The platform eliminated email chains, reduced bottlenecks, and helped both parties move faster and more confidently through the negotiation process.

The platform brought contract turnaround time down from 3 months to just 14 days, with over 80% of suppliers using it. Instead of going back and forth with heavy redlines, most deals were handled in a single pass, and fewer than 10% even needed escalation. Legal and procurement teams had less work on their plates, risk was kept in check with controlled clause options, and built-in analytics gave a clear view into supplier activity and how contracts were performing.

shorten contract timelines and reduce risk by creating a more consistent, efficient, and scalable redlining and legal review process, particularly for supplier negotiations with limited legal support?

With the key features for the MVP already defined by BP, the next step was designing an experience that felt intuitive and easy to learn for both the procurement and supplier apps, since we were introducing an entirely new workflow on both sides.

To align stakeholders and define a shared understanding of the user, the challenge, and what success looked like, we led a hands-on workshop. We created user profiles, mapped out daily routines, and explored new contract workflows, laying the foundation for an experience that felt intuitive, purposeful, and easy to adopt.

Different users had their own way of handling contracts, which made things hard to keep track of.
Users wanted more control but didn’t have the tools to review or approve contracts on their own.
Users were confused about where contracts stood and who was supposed to do what, mostly because no one had a clear view of the process.

We focused on desiging an experience that helped users reach their goal with as little friction as possible, while still meeting business needs and working within technical limits.

This gave procurement teams a fast way to create contracts using a guided, form-style flow. Instead of drafting from scratch, users answered a few straightforward questions, selected pre-approved terms, and added suppliers with just a few clicks.

For the supplier, contracts are accessed through a unique link that provides instant entry. They begin by confirming their information, then review the agreement. Instead of using traditional redlines, suppliers respond by selecting structured options. Each clause includes alternatives with assigned point values, and suppliers start with a set number of negotiating points based on factors like AI-driven analysis and their relationship with BP. All agreements are organized in a simple table, making it easy to view, compare, and respond.

Since this POC was owned by BP, we needed to balance collaboration with leadership. Our role was to listen closely, offer clear recommendations, and ensure the MVP focused on core functionality that supported successful contract negotiations. While BP requested features like procurement analytics and supplier messaging, we aligned together on saving them for future phases, allowing the MVP to stay focused and user-driven.

What began as collaborative sketches turned into a working interface shaped by how procurement teams actually operate. The final design makes it easy to build contracts using simple forms, add suppliers quickly, and stay on top of redlines and approvals. Every part of the experience reflects the needs and priorities shared during the workshop sessions.

And for vendors, they received a unique link to access their contract once it was sent by procurement. All of their contracts are organized in a simple table view, where vendors could easily open, review, and respond to agreements. Instead of redlining, suppliers worked directly with structured options by accepting default terms or choosing alternate clauses that better fit their business. No legalese, no guesswork, and no back-and-forth.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on how users in each role are using the product day to day. The goal is to see what’s working and what’s slowing users down.

The goal is to eventually anticipate which clauses a vendor is most likely to choose. We’ll use AI to get smarter over time, but first, we need to learn from real user behavior.

Beyond the MVP

The initial launch marked a major milestone, cutting contract turnaround from months to just a couple weeks and earning over 80% supplier adoption. Redlines and legal intervention dropped by nearly 90%, and procurement teams were finally able to move faster.

But the work didn't stop there.

Over the next three years, we expanded ContractAI from a single MVP into a full suite of tools supporting every stage of the contract lifecycle. This included:

Contract Management: A robust app for managing templates, clauses, and user permissions, giving procurement and legal teams the flexibility to adapt to business needs in real time.
Vision: An analytics platform layered with AI insights that gave leadership visibility into contract health, process gaps, and organization risk.
Author: A no-code contract authoring tool designed for procurement and sales teams to create and manage contracts using predefined templates without needing legal support.

As the platform matured, it also opened the door for broader commercialization. ContractAI is now positioned as an enterprise SaaS offering, with App Orchid licensing it to other organizations through custom, high-value agreements.

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