We built an AI search assistant that lets business teams ask questions across contracts, policies, terms and internal guidance. It returns a clear answer with the relevant source sections, for a person to check.
Industry: FinTech & Financial ServicesService: AI & AutomationUpdated
Overview
The challenge
Operations, finance and account teams regularly needed answers from contracts, internal policies, supplier terms and customer agreements. Finding the right clause usually meant opening several PDFs and reading them by hand.
The company wanted that information found faster, but it did not want AI making the decisions. People had to stay responsible for interpreting clauses and acting on them.
Teams spent too long searching through lengthy contracts and policy documents.
A keyword search could find a word without the clause around it or the related policy.
The same contract and policy questions kept going to experienced staff.
The solution
We organised contracts, policies, terms and supporting guidance into one search experience that respects permissions.
The RAG layer finds the document sections most closely related to the user's question.
Generative AI summarises those sections in plain language and points to the original wording for review.
Before and after
Before
Read full PDFs
Teams scanned long documents by hand.
After
Ask a question
The relevant clauses come back directly.
Before
Interpret from scratch
Users had to simplify legal or policy language themselves.
After
Plain-language summary
AI explains the retrieved clauses in clearer terms.
Before
Manual cross-checking
People switched between documents to confirm details.
After
Source references
Each answer includes the supporting document sections.
Key features
Users ask practical business questions instead of hunting for exact contract wording.
Business impact
Faster clause discovery
The system finds the most relevant source sections before any answer is written.
Business impact
Better context
Formal wording is summarised for business readers, with the source section still available.
Business impact
Faster review
Results
Less Time Searching Documents
Teams locate the relevant sections faster.
Before: Manual ReadingAfter: Targeted Retrieval
Fewer Routine Interruptions
Common contract and policy questions are easier to answer without going to a specialist.
Before: Ask SpecialistsAfter: AI-Assisted Search
More Transparent Answers
Source sections stay visible, so a person can review them before acting.
Before: Hard to TraceAfter: Source Linked
Faster delivery
Building on tested components saved setup time, so teams had the assistant sooner and we could concentrate on clause retrieval and the review flow.
Our tested access layer kept customer agreements and supplier terms visible only to the teams already allowed to read them.
A proven retrieval layer split long contracts into sections, so a question returns the clause and its surrounding text rather than a whole PDF.
Ready-made sync picked up new and amended contracts and policies, so answers come from the current version.
Existing quality monitoring helped the team review summaries against the clauses they cited.
Trust and control
Contracts and policies can only be searched by people already allowed to read them.
ACCESS CONTROLLEDRelevant clauses are retrieved before a summary is written, which limits unsupported answers.
RAG GROUNDEDEach answer points to the supporting document sections, so people check the exact wording before making a decision.
TRACEABLEContent can be refreshed when contracts, terms and policies change.
UPDATE READYUsers ask a practical question in plain language. The RAG layer retrieves the contract or policy sections most closely related to it, and generative AI summarises them in plain language. Each answer points to the original sections, so the user can check the exact wording before acting on it.
The assistant speeds up finding and understanding clauses, but people stay responsible for interpretation and final decisions. It shows the supporting sections with every answer, so reviewers can read the original wording. Keeping people in charge of decisions was part of the company's brief for the project.
Operations, finance and account teams use it to answer questions from contracts, internal policies, supplier terms and customer agreements. They no longer open several PDFs to find one clause. Routine questions that used to go to experienced staff can now be answered through AI-assisted search.
If your teams still open PDF after PDF to answer contract questions, we can help you build a search assistant that shows its sources and leaves decisions to your people.