Docusign (NASDAQ: DOCU) today announced a new report with Deloitte — "Capitalizing on AI: How Automated Agreement Workflows Drive ROI" — revealing the next frontier for businesses looking to realize value from AI. The 2026 report finds companies investing in AI-powered agreement management are seeing meaningful returns. This is especially true for organizations using agentic workflows within end-to-end agreement platforms, who report nearly 30% higher ROI than those that do not.

AI is everywhere, but results aren't equal.
The study of more than 1,100 senior leaders across six countries reveals a growing benefit realization gap between organizations using fragmented AI tools and those adopting end-to-end platforms. This research follows the initial discovery by Deloitte that poor agreement management costs $2 trillion in global economic value annually.

The biggest AI gains come from maturity, not just adoption.
It's still early days for many companies. Today, 61% of organizations rely on manual processes to surface insights after agreements are signed. But those using AI to analyze agreements proactively are unlocking new revenue and reducing missed opportunities.

Organizations across industries are reporting measurable ROI from AI-powered agreement workflows, including on average:

• 36% efficiency gains through time savings or cycle time reduction.
• 36% cost avoidance due to mitigated risks.
• 29% cost savings from lower labor costs.
• 72% see improvements in agreement accuracy, including clerical error reduction, clause consistency, and regulatory compliance.

The future opportunity: embedding AI insights from the start
Agreements are the foundation of every business, but they are still managed in silos. About 65% of organizations use four or more tools for their agreements, creating friction and slowing teams down.

The report points to a different model. As Jonathan Jones, managing director in Deloitte Legal Business Services & Contract Lifecycle Management practice, Deloitte Tax LLP, says, "Value comes from moving the Intelligence & Insights phase to the front of the contract management process – using this data to not only help inform future contracts, but also to shape all subsequent steps of the contract management process and transform business processes."

AI-powered agreement workflows are changing how teams work:

• Legal: 37% time reclaimed, with one team scaling from ~100-200 to 1,000 contracts per year.
• Sales: 43% time savings, 29% fewer contracting-related deal delays, and 1–2% revenue uplift, or about $4.8 million annually.*
• Procurement: 33% reduction in vendor spend as improved visibility enabled stronger negotiations and more strategic sourcing decisions.
• Customer Experience: 39% more customers completing the agreement process.
• HR: 45% time savings across agreement management.

The takeaway: In 2026, automation alone isn't enough.
Organizations seeing the highest returns are doing more than just adopting AI and automation – they're connecting agreement data across the full lifecycle. Leaders are moving toward platforms that enable team collaboration and integrate with other systems, elevating agreement management as a core pillar of their broader enterprise strategy.

With platforms like Docusign Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM), organizations can connect agreement data across systems, surface insights earlier, drive action, and ultimately capture real ROI.

To download the full report, visit here.

*Source: survey average of 300 annual renewals and a deal size of $670k.