Contract Intelligence Objective
Free up legal resources with AI-powered contract risk review
Solution Highlights
- “Stop light” contract risk scoring to simplify contract review triage
- 60% reduction in external legal spend, attributed in large part to AI-driven NDA review
- A “legal brain” accessible 24/7 across the enterprise, without increasing headcount
Challenge: Contract Complexity Across a Global Enterprise
ALPLA, a global leader in packaging systems, operates across 47 countries serving industries from beverages to pharmaceuticals. With a small legal team supporting 23,000+ employees and 196 production facilities, managing risk in contracts was becoming increasingly unsustainable.
“We had decentralization, a lack of standardization, and risk that was often unmonitored,” recalled Dr. Christian Sparl, Chief Legal Counsel at ALPLA.
Contracts were managed manually, in local languages, with regionally diverse legal requirements. Reviewing even basic agreements like NDAs was time-consuming, costly, and inconsistent.
The tipping point? Legal requests were outpacing capacity, contract risk was often invisible, and the organization needed round-the-clock legal decision-making support—the equivalent of 25 additional employees.
Solution: AI-Driven Contract Risk Analysis with Icertis
To modernize its legal function, ALPLA implemented the Icertis Contract Intelligence platform and RiskAI—a generative AI application that evaluates risk across standard contract types, starting with NDAs.
Using a traffic-light model (red, yellow, green), the application automatically classifies risk in contracts, enabling non-legal users across ALPLA to instantly assess contract health.
With Icertis, “Enabling the field teams is easy,” said Dr. Sparl. “They just need to understand red, yellow, or green to know which contracts need review.”
Key aspects of the solution:
- Automated risk flagging using ALPLA’s own legal playbooks and templates
- A scalable AI assistant, trained by ALPLA’s legal department and operational 24/7
- Seamless integration with existing workflows, reducing friction across regions
- Focus on contract standardization, centralized templates, and digital governance
This approach didn’t just enhance efficiency, it reshaped the legal department’s role from reactive to strategic.
Benefits: Cost Savings, Speed, User Empowerment, and 24/7 AI Legal Counsel
The results speak volumes:
- 60% reduction in external legal spend, attributed in large part to AI-driven NDA review
- 99% of licensed users have been exposed to the GenAI Copilot
- 79% active usage of the AI Copilot by licensed users as of February 2025
- A “legal brain” accessible 24/7 across the enterprise, without increasing headcount
Beyond metrics, ALPLA achieved a cultural shift: legal risk awareness is now embedded in daily business operations. Non-legal employees are empowered to engage with contracts, and the legal team can focus on higher-value work.
“With Icertis, we have a legal team that never sleeps—and a risk lens across the entire contract portfolio.”
ALPLA isn’t stopping with NDAs. Their next phase includes expanding AI-based review to other strategic contract types and continuing to use Icertis to drive proactive risk management and business value across the enterprise.
As Dr. Sparl puts it, “With Icertis, we have a legal team that never sleeps—and a risk lens across the entire contract portfolio.”
