Articles on: Contacts & counterparties

AI analysis for contacts: fill counterparty master data from contracts

Until now, counterparty master data was typed in by hand: legal form, website, VAT ID, contact person. Most of it already sits in a contract you upload anyway. AI analysis for contacts reads it from there, creates the contact if it does not exist yet, and flags every value until you have confirmed it.


There is a second change alongside it: the counterparty field can now hold several contacts, for the cases where one side of a contract really does have more than one.


What's in it for you


  • Less typing on master data. Whatever is in the contract no longer has to be copied over by hand.
  • The contact creates itself. On upload, ContractHero creates the counterparty and fills it in — you do not have to prepare a contact first.
  • Your existing contracts come along. Contracts that have been in the system for ages can be caught up in one run.
  • Nothing slips through unchecked. Every AI value carries a "Verify" („Verifizieren“) marker until a human confirms it.
  • Traceable. One click takes you to the exact spot in the contract a value came from.


Before you start


  • The Feature: Contact Analysis add-on is booked and enabled for your organisation. Talk to your Customer Success Manager if no AI values arrive on your contacts.
  • Creating prompts and starting a re-analysis requires admin rights at organisation level.


How it works


1. Add a prompt to a contact field


Go to Settings → Field builder → Contact field builder („Einstellungen → Feldbaukasten → Kontaktfeldbaukasten“). On the right under "Your fields" („Ihre Felder“), hover the field you want and open its settings.


In the "Update field" („Feld aktualisieren“) dialog, scroll down to the violet-bordered section:


Optionally, tell the AI to extract the key details by giving a specific description for this field.


In the "Tell the AI what to extract" („Sagen Sie der KI, was sie extrahieren soll“) field, phrase the question you want the AI to answer from the contract — for example "What is the company's legal form?". "Improve prompt" („Prompt verbessern“) lets the AI sharpen your wording. Confirm with "Update" („Aktualisieren“) and save the field builder.


This is the same mechanism as the contract field builder, so if you already maintain prompts there, nothing new to learn.


The „Feld aktualisieren“ (Update field) dialog with the AI prompt section on a contact field


2. New contracts: the analysis starts on upload


Upload the contract the usual way via New contract → via upload („Neuer Vertrag → via Upload“). While it runs, the contract shows the status "Being analysed" („Wird analysiert“). Afterwards the counterparty field on the contract holds the matching contact — created automatically if it did not exist yet.


Two kinds of fields get filled:


  • the contact's standard fields such as main contact person, email, phone number, address, postcode, city and country,
  • every custom field that has a prompt, for example legal form, website, VAT ID or number of employees.


Fields without a prompt are left alone, and so is any field that already holds a value.


3. Catch up existing contracts with "Re-analyse field"


Contracts that were already in the system before the feature was enabled can be pulled in with one run:


  1. Open Settings → Field builder → Contract field builder („Einstellungen → Feldbaukasten → Vertragsfeldbaukasten“) — not the contact field builder; the trigger sits on the contract field.
  2. On the right under "Your fields" („Ihre Felder“), search for Counter party („Vertragspartner“) and open its field settings.
  3. Scroll down to the violet-bordered prompt section and click "Re-analyse field" („Feld neu analysieren“).
  4. The dialog tells you the scope, for example: "This field will be re-analysed in 11 of 17 contracts. 6 contracts with verified values will be skipped." („Dieses Feld wird in 11 von 17 Verträgen neu analysiert. 6 Verträge mit verifizierten Werten werden übersprungen.“) "Confirm" („Bestätigen“) starts the run.
  5. You get a confirmation along the lines of "Names re-analysed in 11 contracts. Contacts are being linked in the background." („Namen in 11 Verträgen neu analysiert. Kontakte werden im Hintergrund verknüpft.“) The rest happens in the background — you can close the window.





Once the run finishes, the values sit on the linked contacts — each carrying the "Verify" marker, exactly as after an upload.


Don't confuse the two: the bulk "Analyse" („Analysieren“) action in the contract list re-analyses contract fields. It does not fill contact fields. For contacts, use the contract field builder route above.


4. Review and confirm the AI values


Open the contact. At the top you will see "Check all AI data fields at once" („Alle KI-Datenfelder auf einmal prüfen — Sie können Felder jederzeit bearbeiten, nachdem Sie sie mit unserer KI-Verifizierung bestätigt haben.“).


Every field the AI filled shows two elements:


  • the "Verify" („Verifizieren“) button — one click confirms the value and the marker disappears;
  • the "Show in document" („Im Dokument anzeigen“) icon — it jumps into the contract and highlights the passage the value came from.


Once you have been through them, "Verify all" („Alle verifizieren“) confirms the lot in one go. If a value is wrong, correct it via "Edit contact" („Kontakt bearbeiten“) in the top right.


Contact page with AI-filled fields and the „Verifizieren“ (Verify) marker


5. Add several contacts as counterparties


Open the contract and switch from "View" („Einsehen“) to "Edit" („Bearbeiten“) at the top. Hovering the counterparty field reveals a ⊕ in its top right corner, labelled "Link existing contact" („Bestehenden Kontakt verknüpfen“).


In the dialog, pick an existing contact under "Select contact" („Kontakt auswählen“), or create one directly via "New contact +" („Neuer Kontakt +“). "Add" („Hinzufügen“) puts it into the field alongside the existing contact rather than replacing it.


Each contact offers four actions: Expand, Go to contact, Edit contact and Remove from this field („Aus diesem Feld entfernen“).


Counterparty field in edit mode with the plus icon and the per-contact actions


Common questions


Will the AI overwrite contact data we have already maintained?


No. Fields that already hold a value are left untouched. The AI only fills gaps.


Will my existing contracts be evaluated retroactively?


Yes, but not by themselves. Start the run once via Contract field builder → Counter party → "Re-analyse field" (see step 3). From then on, every new upload is analysed automatically.


What happens to contracts I have already verified?


They are skipped. The dialog tells you how many before you start, so a second run cannot overwrite data you have already checked.


How do I know what a value is based on?


Use the "Show in document" („Im Dokument anzeigen“) icon next to the field. You land in the linked contract with the passage highlighted.


What happens if I never verify a value?


Nothing — the value stays on the contact and keeps its marker. Verification is a quality check, not a switch that activates the data.


Do I have to write a prompt for every contact field?


No. Standard fields such as address or contact person are recognised without one. Prompts are only needed for your own custom fields — start with the ones you find yourself filling in again and again.


Does this work for contacts without a contract?


No. The analysis needs at least one contract as its source.


Why am I not seeing any AI values on my contact?


Check four things: is the add-on booked and enabled? Does the field have a prompt at all? Did the field already hold a value — in which case it is deliberately left as it was. And: is the contract older than the feature being enabled? Then it still needs the run from step 3.


Why can the counterparty field hold several contacts now?


Because one side of a contract sometimes genuinely has more than one party. Until now you had to pick one. A field with two entries reflects reality better than leaving a contact out.


Good to know


  • The prompt decides how good the results are. Same rules as for contract fields: one piece of information per field, phrased as a question. Everything in the prompt article applies here too.
  • Test on one field first. Add a prompt, upload a single contract and look at the result before you equip ten fields at once.
  • Order matters when catching up: set the prompts on your contact fields first, then start "Re-analyse field". The other way round, the analysis runs against empty instructions.
  • Verifying works best as a routine. An unverified value is visible at a glance. Going through a contact once a month keeps master data clean without turning it into a project.
  • Empty fields are the point. On thoroughly maintained contacts little will happen — the value shows up on data sets with a lot of gaps.



Updated on: 09/18/2026

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