AI
AI: The Future for Transaction Management
Sep 1, 2025
If you’ve ever lived through a major corporate transaction, you know the grind. The sheer volume of contracts, redlines, diligence reports, disclosure schedules, memos, and checklists is overwhelming. And the irony is this: the work product that takes the longest to produce often isn’t the strategic insight—it’s the project administration required just to keep the deal moving.
That’s where AI is changing everything. But only if it’s built the right way.
The Problem: AI Alone Isn’t Enough
Plenty of tools promise to “draft your contracts” or “review your diligence” with AI. But when those tools aren’t connected to the actual matter or the firm’s knowledge base, they create more noise than value. They generate answers, but not the right answers for your deal, your client, or your practice.
The future of transaction management won’t come from stand-alone AI apps. It will come from AI layered onto a platform-first architecture—one that structures the deal process and connects directly to the firm’s data.
The Platform Foundation
This is why we built Project Fortress on Salesforce. The platform serves as the system of record for every transaction, integrating seamlessly with:
iManage and NetDocuments for document management.
Microsoft 365 for email and calendars.
Slack and Chatter for collaboration across deal teams and client corp dev.
Interactive closing checklists for real-time status updates.
With all of that in one place, Fortress creates a single source of truth where firm knowledge compounds organically as work gets done.
The AI Layer
On top of that structured foundation sits Fortress AI, our agentic AI framework built specifically for legal transactions. Because it’s connected to the platform, it doesn’t just “know law” in the abstract—it knows your matters.
Here’s what that means in practice:
Diligence Review Hub: AI reviews contracts, leases, and org docs, generating charts and memos that attorneys can act on.
Issues List Generator: Fortress AI turns a 100-page redline into a usable issues list in minutes, layered with market analysis based on your firm’s precedent. No more two-day lag that kills deal momentum.
Disclosure Schedules: Fortress organizes the process in-platform, with diligence-aware AI assisting in preparation of the most detailed schedules.
Market Analysis & Deal Studies: Instantly benchmark deal terms against prior transactions managed in Fortress.
Drafting Assistance: AI drafts nuanced provisions and helps manage disclosure schedules, fund flows, and closing statements.
The result? Drafts go back to clients faster, deal cycles shorten, and legal is no longer seen as a bottleneck.
What This Means for Clients
AI-enabled transaction management isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about outcomes:
Faster deal execution → shorter LOI-to-close timelines.
Fewer turns of drafts → 50% fewer, on average, which means faster closings.
More leverage → firms and in-house teams handle more matters with the same resources.
Competitive advantage → serial buy-side clients win more bids at the LOI stage because legal is no longer a time drain.
The Future Is Here
The future of transaction management is not more tools, more spreadsheets, or more late nights in the deal room. It’s a platform + AI model that makes every matter more structured, more transparent, and more proactive.
At Fortress, we’ve seen firsthand that when AI is tied into a platform that reflects how firms actually work, the results are transformative.
The question for the next decade of legal practice isn’t whether AI will change transactions. It’s how fast firms will adapt—and which ones will lead.
