The 2025 Optimising Agreement Management report finds that 77% of leaders in high-performing organisations credit agreement management with driving success in core business areas. Yet, despite its growing impact, only 16% of businesses have fully automated contract creation, pointing to a significant gap between strategic importance and operational maturity.
The new report builds on findings from last year’s edition, which introduced the Agreement Trap—the hidden cost of manual, fragmented workflows—and estimated US$2 trillion in global economic value is lost yearly due to poor agreement management, withAPAC responsible for approximately US$600 billion of that.
C-suite turns its focus to agreements as a source of competitive edge
The study shows that over 75% of organisations now assign C-level ownership to agreement workflows, signalling a shift from legal back-office admin to enterprise-critical infrastructure. As AI and analytics become embedded into how agreements are created, approved, and integrated, intelligent systems are emerging as key enablers of agility, trust and growth.
APAC snapshot: Singapore leads on trust, but trails peers in AI automation
The study also highlights a clear divergence in how markets across the region are modernising their agreement processes, with Singapore standing out for its strong digital trust, but trailing in AI and automation maturity.
- Nearly 9 in 10 (89%) of Singapore business leaders report strong confidence in their agreement systems—the highest in the region
- Yet leaders in ANZ and Japan are more likely than those in Singapore to report having advanced automation in analytics (21% more) and Enterprise Integration capabilities (27% more).
- Despite cultural barriers to automation, AI-driven integration and contract intelligence are already more widely adopted in Japan than in Singapore
- ANZ leads the region in overall agreement maturity, with 55% of leaders crediting their agreement capabilities with helping them meet strategic goals — nearly twice the proportion in Singapore (30%).
Taken together, the findings reinforce a clear shift: agreement management is no longer a back-office function, but a strategic enabler of speed, security, and performance—especially for businesses across the region looking to stay competitive in a digital-first economy.
