I love filling in long forms”, said no one, ever. However, in these days of compliance overreach, monitoring and auditing, forms just keep getting longer. So how about an AI chatbot that fills in the forms for you? In this article we will investigate how we can feed forms into an AI and get it to fill them out for us.
Forms are, by definition, “meta” in that they collect data using self-referential data. If a form has a field called Buyer Name, is this the Company Representative Name, Authorized Buyer’s Name, Procurement Contact or any of another 100 descriptions? The answer lies in the name of the form or process. In a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA), the buyer can be referred to as the purchaser or acquirer and is the party that acquires ownership of shares in a company from one or more existing shareholders. In a property sale they could be the Purchaser, Grantee, Acquirer or Transferee.
If we provide an AI with the name of the field and the context, i.e. the name of the form or process, the semantic engine behind the AI will have a high probability of working out the Buyers Name in any given set of documents. Even if you ask for the first name and last name of the buyer, the physical closeness of the words will mean an AI will be able to extract the correct details.
For an AI to complete a form we need to provide it with:
- The name of the form/process
- The name of the fields
- Emails and documents containing the data.
AI’s are designed to deal with large numbers of words. Anthropic’s Claude can process 500 pages at one time, the latest model from ChatGPT can process 1,500 pages and Google’s Gemini twice that, so it’s possible to upload large swathes of documentation and within seconds the AI will extract the information for the largest forms.
Streamlining Contract Creation
One of the primary advantages of such a system is the automation of routine and repetitive tasks involved in contract drafting. Contracts, especially standardised or templated ones like NDAs, supplier agreements, or employment contracts, often require the insertion of consistent data points — such as party names, dates, addresses, and jurisdictional clauses. A metadata-driven system can extract these elements from previously collected documents or user-filled forms and automatically populate the relevant fields in new contracts. This drastically reduces drafting time, cuts down on clerical errors, and allows lawyers to focus on higher-value tasks like negotiation and risk assessment.
Additionally, where firms are using online form-based platforms to submit data to clients, regulatory bodies, or contract lifecycle management systems, a system that bridges document metadata and those forms eliminates the need for redundant data entry. This is particularly valuable when dealing with high-volume contract generation in sectors like real estate, commercial leasing, or procurement.
Enhancing Compliance and Risk Mitigation
Compliance with regulatory requirements, such as those stemming from GDPR, AML (Anti-Money Laundering) legislation, or the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority) rules, is a constant concern. Systems that intelligently handle metadata can help ensure compliance by embedding validation checks into the form-filling process. For example, if a required compliance field (e.g. proof of identity or conflict check result) is missing from the metadata, the system can prompt the user before submission, reducing the chance of regulatory breaches.
Outlook Integration
The main data collection point for most office workers is their inbox. Clients and counterparties send huge amounts of documentation to lawyers via email. By dragging and dropping an email, which is in effect a container for a group of documents, into an AI powered form, users can significantly reduce the time to process a matter. Unlike people, who tire when crawling through large bundles of documents, AI’s thrive on more information as they are gathering more context which allows them to more accurately interpret the data to be added to the form.
Look forward to a future where your plastic pal who is fun to be with will take much of the drudgery out of your “Form Hell”.