Global survey shows fragmented contract data is becoming a major barrier to enterprise AI adoption, automation, and operational trust

Sirion, the global leader in AI-native contract lifecycle management (CLM), in collaboration with World Commerce & Contracting (WorldCC), today released a new research report titled: Trusted Contract Data: From Repository to System of Record (SOR).

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260518870836/en/

Sirion in collaboration with WorldCC developed a report on trusted contract data, exploring the shift from repository management to a Contract System of Record.

As enterprises accelerate AI adoption, the findings reveal a growing divide between organizations that merely store contracts and those that can trust, operationalize and act on contract data across the enterprise. The report* comprises responses and insights from more than 170 enterprises worldwide, including legal, procurement, and IT leaders.

The research suggests that many enterprise AI initiatives may be constrained not by model capability, but by fragmented and untrusted contract data foundations.

“GenAI is exposing a hard truth across enterprises: AI is only as reliable as the underlying data foundation,” said Ajay Agrawal, Co-Founder and CEO, Sirion. “Most organizations still manage contracts as disconnected documents spread across repositories, shared drives, and siloed systems. That model breaks down in an AI-driven enterprise. Contracting now requires a trusted System of Record that can transform legal language into structured, connected, operational data. Without that foundation, AI cannot reliably drive decisions, automation, or enterprise-scale execution.”

While most organizations now have a place to store executed contracts, the report highlights a more important gap: far fewer have established a true contract SOR, capable of capturing what was agreed to, where it applies, what obligations and entitlements follow, and whether the business can confidently act on that information.

“Change management remains the most under-considered element in contracting transformation, yet it is often the determining factor between success and failure,” noted Leandro Doca, VP, Head of CCM for Americas at Capgemini, in the survey.

Key Findings from the Survey:

Contract data remains deeply fragmented: In Europe and Oceania, 38% of organizations report that contracts are split across multiple repositories. Shared drives remain a primary storage location outside of a central repository, used by 71% of respondents in North America, 78% in Europe, and 71% in Oceania.

Centralized storage does not equal trusted data: Only 27% of organizations globally store all executed contracts exclusively in CLM, with the majority operating in fragmented environments.

Integration maturity remains extremely low: 54% of organizations report having no automated data flow between systems, while only 9% have bidirectional synchronization that keeps contract data consistently updated across platforms.

Maturity varies significantly by industry: Banking and Financial Services, along with IT/Technology Services and Energy/Oil & Gas, show the highest levels of centralized CLM storage. Banking/Financial Services leads at 50%, while IT (Technology-Software) is at 33%, and Energy/Oil & Gas is at 25%.

AI ambition is accelerating faster than data readiness: 42% of organizations are actively adopting or implementing AI within contracting processes. Yet concerns around data quality, integration, governance, and trust remain among the biggest barriers to progress. The barrier is no longer AI capability. It is trusted data, connected systems, and operational governance.

“This report is a warning against mistaking storage for control,” said Sally Guyer, CEO, WorldCC. “Organizations may have digitized their contract archives, but that does not mean they have trusted contract data. In today’s market, organizations need to know what was agreed, what has changed, what action is required, and whether the business can rely on that information. Trusted contract data is now the foundation for better execution. The organizations that move forward will be those that clean up their data, connect their systems, widen access, and define clear ownership. They will not rely on AI to fix weak foundations. They will use AI to amplify strong ones.”

The report also highlights the operational consequences of disconnected contract data. Without a trusted and connected SOR, enterprises remain dependent on manual interpretation, fragmented repositories, and institutional knowledge. The result is slower decision-making, weaker visibility into obligations and entitlements, higher value leakage, and lower confidence in AI-generated outputs.

Trusted contract data: From Repository to System of Record is now available from Sirion and WorldCC. Download the report here.

*The survey was conducted between 13 February and 10 April 2026 with 170 respondents.

About WorldCC

World Commerce & Contracting (WorldCC) is a global non-profit association dedicated to improving trading relationships and commercial effectiveness. With more than 80,000 members worldwide, WorldCC provides research, standards, training, and resources that enable organizations to achieve better commercial and contracting outcomes.

About Sirion

Sirion is the world’s leading AI-native CLM platform, pioneering the application of agentic AI to help enterprises transform the way they store, create, and manage contracts.

The platform’s extraction, conversational experience, and AI-enhanced negotiation capabilities have revolutionized contracting across enterprise teams–from legal and procurement to sales and finance. The world’s most valuable brands trust Sirion to manage 7M+ contracts worth nearly $800B and relationships with 1M+ suppliers and customers in 100+ languages. Leading analysts such as Gartner, IDC, and Spend Matters have consistently recognized Sirion as a leader in CLM for its focus on category-leading innovation. For more information, visit www.sirion.ai.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260518870836/en/

Media contact:

For WorldCC:
Kate Hodgins
Head of Marketing & Communications
khodgins@worldcc.com

For Sirion:
Bodhi Thakur
Head of Brand and Comms
bodhi.thakur@sirionlabs.com

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