Key Takeaways
- Legal professionals Kyle Montrose and Neda Semsarieh have outlined how AI-powered virtual data rooms and legal-specific generative AI platforms are transforming M&A due diligence.
- These tools cut time spent on manual contract review through automated summaries, smarter search, redaction and Q&A workflows.
- Despite real efficiency gains, both experts stress that human oversight remains essential for accuracy, legal enforceability and client confidentiality. AI is quietly reshaping one of the most document-heavy jobs in law: M&A due diligence. Two attorneys at Dentons, Kyle Montrose and Neda Semsarieh, have detailed how AI-powered deal rooms and generative platforms are cutting the time lawyers spend buried in contracts, and what firms need to watch out for when using them.
AI-Powered Virtual Data Rooms Transform Deal Execution
Virtual data rooms (VDRs) used to be little more than secure file storage for transaction documents. Now they’re getting smarter. AI-enhanced VDRs can search documents by meaning rather than just keywords, so if you ask a question in plain English, the system finds relevant clauses even if the exact words don’t match. That alone saves lawyers significant time when combing through thousands of pages.
The newer features go further. Conversational chat lets users ask questions and get context-aware answers pulled from the documents. Automated summaries give quick overviews of lengthy contracts without anyone having to read every line. Redaction tools can spot sensitive information, including financial data, personal details and protected intellectual property, and flag or remove it automatically. Some platforms also handle Q&A workflows, tracking diligence questions and automating responses to keep deals moving. If you’re curious how AI is handling more complex reasoning tasks, our look at guardrails for LLM behaviour is worth a read.
Generative AI Platforms Boost Legal Efficiency
Beyond VDRs, law firms are turning to legal-specific generative AI platforms to speed up routine work. Attorneys can upload batches of contracts and have the system generate organised review charts flagging key provisions: change of control clauses, termination penalties, indemnification obligations, restrictive covenants and more. Work that once meant reading every contract manually now takes a fraction of the time.
These tools also catch things that slip through in large document sets, like missing signatures or unresolved redactions. Outside of due diligence, the same platforms can draft tailored contract clauses or pull standard language from clause databases, removing the need to hunt through old precedents. They’re also proving useful as proofreading tools, catching errors that tired human eyes miss after hours of review.
Combined Impact and Essential Human Oversight
Montrose and Semsarieh argue that pairing AI-powered VDRs with generative AI platforms improves efficiency across the full deal lifecycle, from initial diligence through to signing. That frees up deal teams to focus on the work that actually requires legal judgment: negotiating, advising clients and making calls that no algorithm can make. For in-house counsel in particular, these tools can shift time and resources away from document grunt work toward higher-value decisions.
But both experts are clear that AI is not a substitute for a lawyer. These tools don’t always produce accurate or legally enforceable language, and relying on AI-generated work without careful human review carries real risk. There’s also the matter of client confidentiality: sensitive information should never be entered into an AI tool without proper data privacy safeguards in place. The bottom line from Montrose and Semsarieh is straightforward. AI works best as a powerful support for skilled legal analysis, not a replacement for it. Stay up to date with the latest AI developments at Auton AI News.
Originally published at https://autonainews.com/montrose-semsarieh-ai-speeds-ma-due-diligence-by-half/
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