Introduction: A Conference Focused on Contracts in Practice

We’re back from Future Contracts London, which has established itself as a practitioner-first forum for exploring how contracts, AI, and legal technology intersect in real-world legal work. Rather than focusing on abstract innovation, the event brings together legal professionals, technologists, and business leaders to examine what actually works — and what doesn’t — when new tools meet the realities of contracting at scale.

This year’s conference reflected that practical focus. Speakers and attendees represented a wide range of organizations, including global enterprises such as Google, Salesforce, and Nokia, alongside law firms, legal ops leaders, and technology providers. The breadth of participation reinforced a shared reality: contract workflows sit at the center of business operations, and the way they evolve has real consequences for speed, risk, and trust.

The BoostDraft team was pleased to take part in the conversation, including presenting a pitch titled “Reclaim Simplicity in the AI Era — Improve Efficiency Without Changing the Way You Work.” The framing resonated with many of the themes that emerged throughout the event: a growing desire to reduce friction, respect existing workflows, and apply technology in ways that support, rather than disrupt, legal judgment.

At its core, Future Contracts London raised a timely question facing legal teams everywhere: how can technology be applied responsibly, at scale, to improve contract work without sacrificing clarity, control, or the human expertise that legal practice depends on?

These key themes emerged as answers to that question.

The Core Themes That Defined the Conference

Legal Teams Are Still Drowning in Low-Value Work

One message came through clearly: too much legal time is still spent on repetitive, low-complexity tasks. These activities add little strategic value, yet consume enormous bandwidth. Speakers emphasized that standardizing and supporting this work with technology is essential if lawyers are going to focus on judgment, negotiation, and risk — the things only humans can do well.

Standardization Is Unappealing — But Extremely Effective

What’s the solution to that deluge of low-value work?

Standardization may not be glamorous. One speaker compared it to suburban tract housing: predictable, repeatable, and scalable. But high-growth organizations such as venture capital funds have relied on standardized contracts for decades, enabling faster deals, clearer expectations, and more consistent outcomes as they scaled dramatically. The lesson for legal teams is straightforward: consistency is what makes growth possible.

Not All Legal Work Should Be Treated the Same

A simple but powerful framework for scaling legal operations emerged from the conference sessions. According to this framework, legal work falls into three broad categories:

• Standardizable tasks that can be automated
• Mid-complexity work that benefits from technology and playbooks
• High-complexity matters that require human judgment in the moment

Applying technology effectively starts with knowing which bucket the work belongs in, and resisting the urge to automate everything.

It’s Not Human or AI — It’s Human and the Loop

Rather than framing technology as a replacement for lawyers, the conversation focused on balance. When work is uniform and repeatable, automation makes sense. As complexity increases, technology should support lawyers, not override them. And at the highest levels of nuance and risk, human judgment remains irreplaceable. The goal isn’t to remove lawyers from the process; it’s to put them where they matter most.

Flexible, Role-Specific Tech Beats One-Size-Fits-All

With legal tech options multiplying, speakers cautioned against the idea that any single platform can solve every problem. The future isn’t about buying more tools; it’s about layering an integrated tech stack and using the right tool for the job at hand. Flexible, role-specific solutions help teams avoid overwhelm, reduce shelfware, and ensure they’re actually using technology, not just paying for it.

Clean Data Is the Real Foundation for AI

No matter how sophisticated the technology, it can’t overcome poor inputs. Inconsistent templates, fragmented systems, and messy clause libraries were repeatedly cited as the biggest barriers to effective AI and automation. Clean, structured data isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s the prerequisite for everything else to work.

Change Fails When Expectations Aren’t Managed

Another recurring message was that legal tech adoption often breaks down not because of the tool, but because of misaligned expectations. Teams are promised transformation overnight, only to encounter learning curves, partial rollouts, or unclear ownership. Trust erodes quickly when reality doesn’t match the story.

Speakers emphasized that successful adoption depends on setting realistic expectations from the start: what the tool will solve immediately, what will take time, and what it’s not meant to do at all. Clear communication, incremental rollouts, and visible early wins help teams build confidence instead of resistance.

When legal teams understand why a change is happening, how it will affect their daily work, and what success actually looks like, adoption becomes collaborative rather than forced. Technology stops feeling like another mandate and starts feeling like support.

Adoption Depends on Simplicity, Not Feature Density

Finally, many speakers stressed that the most advanced tools often fail for a simple reason: people don’t use them. Over-engineered systems introduce friction, slow teams down, and quietly erode trust. Tools succeed when they are intuitive, low-friction, and introduced incrementally — supported by a culture that values progress over perfection.

Why These Themes Matter Now

Taken together, these themes point to a clear shift in how buyers are evaluating legal tech: the conversation has matured. Legal teams are no longer chasing novelty for its own sake or experimenting with tools just to see what’s possible. Instead, they are asking harder, more practical questions about fit, scalability, and trust.

What stood out at Future Contracts London was how deliberately teams are thinking about where technology belongs in the contract lifecycle — and where it doesn’t. Automation is no longer viewed as an all-or-nothing proposition. Standardization is embraced where it creates leverage. Technology is welcomed where it removes friction. And human judgment is preserved where complexity, context, and risk demand it.

This reflects a broader recalibration across the legal industry. Success is no longer defined by how advanced a tool looks in a demo, but by whether it integrates cleanly, earns user trust, and delivers consistent value under real-world pressure. As legal teams scale, the goal is productivity over complexity. Legal professionals need systems that support how lawyers actually work, rather than forcing them to adapt to technology for its own sake.

In that sense, the themes from the conference weren’t just observations about tools. They were signals of an industry learning how to deploy technology with intention — using it to strengthen judgment, not replace it.

Conclusion

Future Contracts London made one thing clear: the conversation around contract technology has entered a more thoughtful phase. Legal teams are no longer asking whether AI and automation belong in their workflows. They are asking how to apply them responsibly, where they add the most value, and how to do so without eroding trust or judgment.

The themes that surfaced throughout the conference point toward a shared goal: reclaiming simplicity in an increasingly complex legal tech landscape. Improving efficiency without forcing teams to abandon familiar ways of working. Automating what can be standardized, while preserving human judgment where nuance, context, and risk demand it.

That philosophy sits at the heart of BoostDraft’s approach. Rather than disrupting how lawyers work, BoostDraft focuses on removing friction from the work you already do — helping teams review, compare, and manage contracts more efficiently inside Word, without sacrificing control or clarity.

If these themes resonate with your own challenges…
If your team is navigating how to apply AI and automation thoughtfully, not reflexively…
We’d welcome the opportunity to continue the conversation.

Get in touch with us to see how simplicity, efficiency, and judgment can coexist in your contract workflows.