AI can help explain a clause, organize obligations, or produce a first draft of a contract summary. Preparing the text you share is part of that work.
For a lawyer preparing a contract for an approved AI tool, the goal is a useful answer with less unnecessary disclosure. This example summarizes payment obligations without sharing the real parties, fee, or date. All names, figures, and terms below are fictional.
This is an editorial demonstration, not a recorded model run or a customer result. The response below illustrates the workflow; your AI tool may answer differently.
01 / Choose the task
Start with a specific question.
Summarize the payment obligations and identify any payment terms the excerpt leaves unclear.
Select only the relevant excerpt. A question about payment may need just a few clauses. Use an AI provider and account approved for the work, following your organization’s policies and client instructions.
02 / Review sensitive details
Decide what the task needs.
Northbridge Consulting will provide advisory services to Cedar Labs under Project Juniper. Cedar Labs will pay Northbridge Consulting $48,000 in three equal installments. The first installment is due on November 1, 2026. Notices must be sent to [email protected].
Review company names, contact details, and the confidential project name. Consider whether the question requires the real fee and dates.
- Replace the parties
- Use a consistent placeholder for each company, including repeated mentions. The AI needs to know who pays whom, but not their real names.
- Replace the project and contact
- The project name may identify the matter; the email is unnecessary for a payment summary. You could omit the notices sentence entirely for this task.
- Replace the fee and first due date
- We only want the payment structure. Hidden values cannot support a calculation or a calendar comparison.
- Keep “three equal installments”
- This is the structure we want summarized. Removing it would remove part of the answer.
Here, we want a structural summary, so we will replace those values. If you want AI to calculate installment amounts, replacing the fee with a placeholder removes information it needs.
03 / Create a protected copy
Keep the relationships readable.
Paste the excerpt into LegisComply or open a supported document. Review the suggested replacements and manually add sensitive terms, such as the project name, that require your knowledge of the matter.
[[COMPANY_1]] will provide advisory services to [[COMPANY_2]] under [[CUSTOM_1]]. [[COMPANY_2]] will pay [[COMPANY_1]] [[AMOUNT_1]] in three equal installments. The first installment is due on [[DATE_1]]. Notices must be sent to [[EMAIL_1]].
The placeholders shown here are illustrative. Your labels may differ: use the ones your session produces, and do not substitute the printed example for your own mapping. Read the protected text before sharing it. Check that references remain consistent and that distinctive facts do not still reveal the matter. Keep the LegisComply tab open so you can restore the response later.
04 / Ask a focused question
Give the AI a clear boundary.
Copy the reviewed text into your approved AI tool with this prompt:
Summarize the payment obligations in this excerpt. Preserve every placeholder exactly as written. Identify information that is missing from the excerpt, and do not assume it is missing from the full agreement. Do not infer hidden names, amounts, or dates.
That instruction helps keep the answer tied to the material provided. An illustrative response might say:
[[COMPANY_2]] must pay [[COMPANY_1]] [[AMOUNT_1]] in three equal installments. The first is due on [[DATE_1]]. The excerpt does not specify when the second and third installments are due.
05 / Restore and verify
Put the details back. Check the substance.
Paste the response back into the same LegisComply browser tab to restore recognized placeholders. If a token was changed or is unrecognized, check it against the source rather than guessing. Keep the session open until you finish.
Cedar Labs must pay Northbridge Consulting $48,000 in three equal installments. The first is due on November 1, 2026. The excerpt does not specify when the second and third installments are due.
Compare the answer with the original agreement. Check the parties, obligations, figures, and dates, and read surrounding clauses before accepting a claimed omission.
Replacing sensitive details reduces what you disclose. It does not establish permission to use AI or guarantee that the resulting analysis is correct.
What this example cannot do
Restoration puts values back. It does not redo the analysis.
The model can report that the first payment is due on a date represented by a token. It cannot tell whether that date falls on a weekend or whether a payment is overdue. Restoring the date afterward does not perform those checks.
Likewise, the model cannot calculate each installment from a hidden fee. After restoration, a reviewer can independently calculate $48,000 ÷ 3 = $16,000 and check the full agreement for rounding, conditions, or adjustments.
If the task requires facts you cannot share, change the task or use a workflow approved for those facts. Distinctive terms may still reveal a matter after names are replaced. See an example of identification through context.
Before relying on this answer, verify who pays whom, check every restored value, and locate the remaining installment terms in the full agreement. Read how local processing and restoration work.