On-demand webinar: Legal tech buzzwords explained

If you've attended a legal technology demo recently, you've probably heard terms such as playbooks, agentic AI, CLM, one-source-of-truth, and perhaps you’re wondering whether everyone in the room actually means the same thing.

The legal technology market has evolved greatly over the past few years, with new vendors, new software and new AI capabilities emerging almost every day.

This evolution brings a lot of opportunities for in-house legal teams, but also a lot of confusion with an ever-growing technology feature list, and a lot of buzzwords.

In our latest webinar, in partnership with In-House Connect, Summize’s General Counsel Lexi Lutz and CLM and legal operations expert Lucy Bassli unpacked the terminology that legal teams are seeing every day.

Drawing on years of experience both practicing in-house and advising legal teams on technology adoption, they separated marketing language from practical reality and explained what these buzzwords actually mean.

If you're considering a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform, exploring AI tools, or simply trying to keep up with the latest legal tech trends, here are some of the biggest takeaways.

Contract management vs Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)

One area that regularly creates confusion is the distinction between contract management and Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM).

Many legal professionals naturally think of contract management as everything that happens after a contract has been signed, tasks such as managing obligations, renewals and ongoing compliance.

Technology vendors, however, often use CLM to describe an end-to-end process covering every stage of the contract lifecycle, such as:

• Contract creation
• Review and negotiation
• Approval
• Execution
• Repository and storage
• Reporting and analytics

Common legal tech buzzwords every in-house lawyer should understand

The webinar explored several terms that may frequently appear when you’re searching for a CLM or legal tech solution.

One source of truth

The source of truth is associated with having one single contract repository where all your agreements, matters and associated documents are stored.

Many legal technologies will talk about the advantages of owning a ‘one source of truth’ compared to having contracts, and various versions, scattered around email inboxes, SharePoint or even local drives.

This phrase is commonly associated with having a single repository where contracts can be easily located and searched. Whereas a genuine "single source of truth", in terms of a contract repository, should help legal and the wider business access the most up to date and reliable contract information when they need it.

Templates

For most in-house lawyers, a template means a reusable legal document. For some technology providers, a template refers to a pre-configured workflow inside the software.

The difference may seem small, but the vendor-focused terminology may make your next CLM search a little bit easier.

Playbooks and workflows

Playbooks are often thought of as negotiation guides, containing fallback positions and preferred clauses to help legal teams create and negotiate contracts consistently.

Workflows describe how work moves through the contracting process, from the initial request to execution.

Although these concepts are closely connected, they solve different problems. Understanding the distinction helps legal teams better evaluate how technology supports both legal decision-making and operational efficiency.

AI for legal teams: Looking beyond the hype

Artificial intelligence dominated much of the webinar’s discussion as there are many buzzwords in the space, and more appearing each week, for example:

• AI-native
• AI-first
• Contract Intelligence
• Agentic AI
• AI Agents
• Tokens

While these terms are becoming increasingly common, both Lexi and Lucy within the webinar encouraged legal teams not to focus just on labels. Instead, ask practical questions such as:

• What specific legal tasks does the AI perform?
• Does it support legal decision-making or attempt to replace it?
• Where does human review remain essential?
• How autonomous is the system in practice?

The more you understand how AI can work for you and your business, the easier it will be to see past the many buzzwords that crowd the legal technology market.

What’s the best way to choose legal technology?

Ultimately, our webinar speakers discussed how best in-house legal professionals can choose legal technology that works for them, rather than becoming blindsided by buzzwords and feature lists which may not mean much at first.

Instead of concentrating solely on product demonstrations, ask questions that reveal how successful a solution is in practice. For example,

• Which large language models (LLMs) power the platform?
• How much implementation support is provided?
• What percentage of customers renew their subscriptions?
• How do existing customers measure adoption and usage?
• Who will support your team after implementation?

These questions can provide valuable insight into whether a platform is likely to deliver long-term value for your business, rather than just an impressive demonstration.

The future of legal technology belongs to informed buyers

One of the most reassuring messages from the webinar’s discussion was that even experienced legal professionals are still trying to understand the changing legal technology landscape.

The pace of innovation we have all experienced over the last few years means terminology will continue to evolve even further. New AI capabilities will emerge and existing categories will continue to shift.

Therefore it isn’t vital to understand every term, every buzzword – instead it’s all about developing the confidence to ask questions, challenge assumptions and understand how technology serves your legal department’s needs.

Watch the full webinar

For more insights and expert advice from our General Counsel Lexi Lutz and CLM expert Lucy Bassli, watch the full webinar and gain a clearer understanding of today’s legal technology and CLM landscape.