A new report finds that 91% of business leaders say three or more business processes, from renewals and billing to audits and compliance, depend on accurate, accessible contract data. Yet 93% of respondents experienced challenges in the past year because contract data was inaccurate, missing or too slow to access, underscoring the need to make contract intelligence a priority and strategic advantage across the enterprise, not just for legal.
That data comes from Pramata‘s 2026 Contract Intelligence Index, which shows how gaps in contract data access and accuracy create costly challenges for enterprises, limiting the value organizations can realize across the business.
Among the more than 450 Legal, Finance, Commercial Operations and IT leaders surveyed, nearly all (97%) said fixing how they get value from their contracts is a priority over the next 12 months. More than half of the respondents said that fixing just one thing would be worth $250,000 or more annually, with nearly one in five (18%) putting the value in the millions.
The contract value gap shows up across the enterprise: half (50%) saw a deal slow down because they couldn’t find what they’d already agreed to, 48% couldn’t quickly answer a request from an executive, 37% faced an audit, compliance or legal exposure they didn’t see coming, and 33% delivered services or usage that never got billed.
The research points to a clear root cause: nearly half of survey respondents said their single biggest challenge is contract data spread across too many places. Sixty-one percent report contract data lives in at least four different locations. Meanwhile, only 11% are able to get reliable contract answers in minutes.
The need to close the gap is increasingly becoming more urgent as organizations move to AI adoption. Nearly 80% are already using AI against their contract data, in production or in pilots, yet only 25% say that data is completely ready for an AI agent to act on without a person double-checking the output.
“We’ve always known contract data is critical to multiple business functions, not just Legal. It fuels the entire enterprise. But extracting real value from contracts remains a top challenge for business leaders, primarily because there’s simply no single source of truth for contract data within an enterprise organization,” said Justin Schweisberger, CRO, Pramata. “What our research makes abundantly clear: closing the contract value gap is now an enterprise-wide priority across business functions. Nearly every single person we surveyed confirmed they are prioritizing ways to extract more value from their contracts. This is the very challenge Pramata addresses. We give enterprise organizations the power to transform commercial assets into structured, actionable contract intelligence.”
The report also found that legal isn’t the sole owner of contract intelligence. When contract data is wrong or missing, more than two-thirds (68%) of respondents say a team other than Legal is accountable. IT and Data teams were named most often (30%), followed by Commercial and Contract Operations (25%).
“The fact that less than a quarter of business leaders report inaccurate contract data is the Legal team’s responsibility is a key insight and drives home just how significantly the contract value gap can impact the entire enterprise,” said Schweisberger. “The overarching trend is clear: contract intelligence is critical and important to all.”
Taken together, the findings reveal how much businesses depend on contract intelligence. When contract data is fragmented and inaccessible, organizations risk lost revenue, delayed decisions, and missed opportunities. Closing the contract value gap requires a cross-functional effort to make contract data reliable, connected, and actionable. Pramata makes this possible by connecting contract data and surfacing the commercial context teams need to make more-informed decisions and drive better outcomes across the entire enterprise.
To download Pramata’s 2026 contract intelligence research, visit: The 2026 Contract Intelligence Index.
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