What challenges did Allen & Overy face before AI implementation?

Lawyers spent significant time on manual contract drafting and review High risk of errors and AI hallucinations in automated contract analysis Difficulty managing large volumes of diverse contract types efficiently Need to enable lawyers to focus on strategic decision-making, not routine tasks Inefficient lifecycle management for contracts

What was the impact of the AI solution?

Over 1,000 lawyers adopted the tool internally, drastically improving productivity Significantly reduced manual workload, allowing more focus on strategic work Lowered error rates and improved legal output quality via reliable AI grounding Accelerated contract turnaround and review times for internal and client projects

Source

MicrosoftLive sourceEvidence: Low35/100

Allen & Overy transforms legal workflows with ContractMatrix AI tool

Use case typeContract lifecycle managementUpdated Jun 13, 2026

Allen & Overy (A&O) has introduced ContractMatrix, a cutting-edge AI-powered tool aimed at revolutionizing legal services. This software, developed in partnership with Microsoft and Harvey, harnesses generative AI to simplify contract drafting, review, and lifecycle management. Integrated into Microsoft Azure, the tool significantly reduces the risk of AI hallucinations by utilizing high-quality legal knowledge databases, known as "benches." ContractMatrix serves both internal and external client use cases, deployable as a web app or Word add-in. Already embraced by a large internal team of over 1,000 lawyers, the tool allows legal professionals to focus on strategic tasks, enhancing productivity and decision-making in a legal context.

Organization: Allen & Overy
Industry: Legal
Location: United Kingdom
Published: December 2023

Reported outcomes

Strategic outcomes

New product / capabilityLaunched AI-powered contract workflow toolRisk & complianceReduced AI hallucination riskNew product / capabilityEnabled bulk contract processingCustomer experience & trustImproved legal output quality and trust

Why do we believe this deployment?Customer identity, provider attribution, maturity, and source checks

Customer: Allen & Overy
Provider: Microsoft
Maturity: Unknown
Linked source: legaltechnology.com

No explicit deployment-stage evidence found.

Customer identity supportedSource describes one deploymentMaturity evidence evaluated

Primary read

Use case focus

Showing 3 of 5

1Automated Contract Drafting and Review
2AI-Powered Contract Risk Assessment
3Contract Lifecycle Management Automation

Lawyers spent significant time on manual contract drafting and review
High risk of errors and AI hallucinations in automated contract analysis
Difficulty managing large volumes of diverse contract types efficiently
Need to enable lawyers to focus on strategic decision-making, not routine tasks
Inefficient lifecycle management for contracts

Developed ContractMatrix using Azure AI, Harvey, and the Azure OpenAI Service
Integrated high-quality legal knowledge bases (âbenchesâ) to reduce AI hallucinations
Launched as both SaaS web application and Microsoft Word add-in for flexibility
Enabled bulk processing and analysis of contracts for both internal and client use
Tested and iteratively refined by over 1,000 internal lawyers before external rollout

Technologies

Azure AI

Over 1,000 lawyers adopted the tool internally, drastically improving productivity
Significantly reduced manual workload, allowing more focus on strategic work
Lowered error rates and improved legal output quality via reliable AI grounding
Accelerated contract turnaround and review times for internal and client projects

Sources & evidence1

Evidence: Low35/100Evidence strength