Agiloft has announced the acquisition of Screens, a standards-based and community-supported Generative AI contract review and redlining solution. Founded in 2024, Screens provides lawyers, law firms, and in-house legal teams with an AI-powered tool for reviewing and redlining documents 10x faster.
The addition of Screens technology to the Agiloft Data-first Agreement Platform will enhance its contract management capabilities. Screens will complement the Agiloft contract review process. It will help organisations to standardise contracts faster and enable them to review and mark up documents faster than before.
Eric Laughlin, CEO at Agiloft, commented, “We are excited to welcome Screens to the Agiloft team. With Screens’ contract review technology available both integrated into our platform and as a standalone solution, businesses everywhere will have a data-driven, community-supported, and standards-based way to accelerate their business.
“It is a pivotal moment for Agiloft, and we are ready to engage the legal community to set a new standard in how companies manage their contracts.”
Agiloft did not reveal the financial terms of the agreement. However, Laughlin was keen to explain the benefits of adding the Screens AI technology to the Agiloft platform. He said, “What’s most important is the tremendous strategic value this acquisition brings. We’re incredibly excited about the opportunities for data-driven standardization Screens will bring to Agiloft and how it will benefit our customers and partners in the long run.”
What is Screens
Screens was founded in 2023 by Otto Hanson (CEO) and Evan Harris (CTO). It is a sister company to TermScout, which provides the world’s largest contract database. Termscout is not included within this acquisition and will continue independently.
The six employees within Screens will join Agiloft as part of this agreement. They include two in Product, three in engineering and one in go-to-market. Evan Harris will join Agiloft as the Senior Director of Software Engineering on the technical team.
Hanson will also join Agiloft as VP Product & Screens.ai General Manager. Screens will continue as a standalone business unit “for the foreseeable future, as we integrate the technology into our core Data-first Agreement Platform.”
The Screens platform has AI-powered capabilities that enable customers to review and mark documents faster and consistently. The solution includes:
Screens
Screens are contract review playbooks programmed to ensure that your specific contract requirements are met. Customers can create and share Screens, creating standardised playbooks that can be re-used and updated constantly.
Standards-based reviews and redlining:
Using an easily configurable playbook (a Screen), customers can rapidly assess whether a contract and its constituent parts meet pre-defined internal standards. Screens run within MS Word and get instant GenAI-driven suggestions for redlined clauses.
Community
Screens playbooks are not limited to only those created by customers. A community of Screens creators publishes an array of expertly crafted playbooks. These are freely available to Screens users and can be used to evaluate contracts based on the knowledge of experienced experts. Customers may also choose to list their playbooks for reuse by the broader user community.
It means that playbooks are available for users to enable organisations to conduct contract reviews against defined contract standards across different industries and use cases.
Market data
As playbooks are used by Screens users, the system tracks pass and failure rates. This gives users context. If a particular clause regularly passes, users can assume that it is an industry-standard worth insisting on. If it regularly fails, users can assume what should be avoided or eliminated.
Otto Hanson, Founder of Screens, said, “Legal teams are under constant pressure to move quickly while ensuring that contracts meet the highest standards. By joining Agiloft, we are accelerating the impact of our AI-driven contract review technology.
“Together, we will provide organizations with a seamless, end-to-end solution that streamlines contract management from start to finish. We are excited about the future and the opportunities to create even more value for customers.”
Doesn’t Agiloft have redlining already?
I asked Agiloft what would happen to the existing Agilot functionality and if there would be an increase in price.
Laughlin replied, “To provide our customers with the best possible experience, Agiloft GenAI Redlining will transition to Screens over the next couple of quarters. Ultimately, that integration will make Screens a standard feature within the Agiloft platform, ensuring all customers benefit from this powerful new technology. This transition will be reflected in future pricing structures, but we can’t comment on exact pricing at this point.”
Existng joint customers such as Del Monte will be keen to understand the implication of that pricing. They will expect to stop paying for both capabilities once the transition is complete.
Redlining is a critical part of any legal organisation, and once that is often time-consuming, complex and inefficient. Screens have developed an AI-powered redlining capability that will enable lawyers to scale the redlining process without having to create a bespoke clause library.
The community-available playbooks enable organisations to leverage industry-standard libraries to bring consistently and efficiency to the redlining process.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Since KKR acquired a majority stake in Agiloft, it has been relatively quiet. This announcement indicates that KKR is looking to invest in the company to grow its market share and improve its capabilities.
Jackson Hart, Principal at KKR, said, “Agiloft’s acquisition of Screens is a significant step forward in the Company’s growth journey. The combination of Agiloft’s comprehensive contract management platform and Screens’ contract review technology will provide businesses with speed, accuracy, and standardization they need to stay ahead.
“We are thrilled to support the Agiloft team as they continue to drive transformation in the CLM landscape.”
By making this acquisition, Agiloft is demonstrating its willingness to invest in leading AI technologies to get a step ahead. That may also mean writing off some of the development costs that it has sunk into its own platform. It will be interesting to see how quickly the Screens capabilities will replace those of Agiloft redlining. It is worth noting that the Agiloft redlining capability was already good.
The next question is whether KKR will look to fund another acquisition for Agiloft to further strengthen or extend its platform. With a strong start to 2025, what is next?
