How Qanooni Speeds Up Due Diligence Reviews
See how Qanooni accelerates AI due diligence contract review in M&A with lawyer-first workflows, passive playbooks, and authority-grounded outputs.
AI due diligence contract review in 2025 is about more than speed. Deal teams in the UK and EU need trusted outputs, regulatory compliance, and tools that protect the client's interests whilst cutting review time in half.
Due diligence is one of the most time-intensive stages of M&A. Associates and in-house teams sift through hundreds of contracts, looking for change-of-control clauses, assignment restrictions, or hidden risks that can change deal value. The challenge is speed without missing something critical.
In 2025, the pressure is sharper in the UK and Europe. Deal volumes have been recovering post-Brexit, with London positioned as the hub for private equity and cross-border M&A. Regulators expect firms to show robust data-handling practices: the SRA reminds UK lawyers that privilege and confidentiality apply equally to AI-assisted work, whilst EU clients increasingly want assurance that tools align with GDPR and the EU AI Act obligations starting August 2025.
Traditional AI tools promise shortcuts, but many generate summaries without context, or worse, hallucinate answers. Qanooni takes a different approach: it works the way lawyers do, inside Word and Outlook, grounded in legal authority databases and firm playbooks. The result is faster reviews with outputs lawyers can trust.
The bottlenecks in due diligence
In a typical M&A deal, the contract review team faces three recurring pain points:
Volume: Hundreds or thousands of contracts must be checked in days.
Consistency: Different reviewers flag different issues, creating gaps.
Reporting: Findings must be turned into structured advice for the client.
In the UK, these challenges are compounded by sector-specific rules in financial services, energy, and healthcare, and by regulators' insistence on traceability in analysis. In EU cross-border deals, teams must also ensure outputs meet GDPR standards and anticipate EU AI Act obligations.
Manual diligence vs Qanooni-assisted diligence
| Manual diligence | With Qanooni |
|---|---|
| Associates manually search for key clauses | Review Assistant highlights change-of-control, assignment, termination, governing law automatically |
| Inconsistent issue flagging across reviewers | Passive playbooks ensure consistent application of standards |
| Notes scattered across spreadsheets or PDFs | Findings structured directly in Word, aligned to client instructions |
| Risk of missed clauses or over-flagging | Authority-grounded answers with citations reduce misses and false positives |
| Review cycles stretch for weeks | Firms report cycles completed up to 2.5× faster |
How Qanooni accelerates diligence reviews
1. Rapid ingestion and issue spotting
Contracts are uploaded into Qanooni's Review Assistant. The system highlights key clauses and flags deviations against the firm's precedent, with every extraction linked to the underlying text.
2. Consistency through passive playbooks
Qanooni applies the firm's playbooks automatically, embedding risk tolerances and deal-specific parameters. This ensures fewer misses, fewer escalations, and smoother partner review.
3. Structured outputs in Word
Instead of unstructured notes, Qanooni presents findings directly in Word, mapped to the issues the deal team cares about. Lawyers stay in the environment they already trust.
4. Authority-grounded answers
When lawyers query unusual provisions, Qanooni draws from legal authority databases and internal knowledge bases, surfacing cited answers. This reduces hallucinations and provides the verification trail regulators and clients expect.
5. Time savings you can measure
Firms using Qanooni report review cycles completed up to 2.5 times faster. Associates save hours on manual checks, and partners get structured reviews they can trust without rework.
How to use Qanooni in your next diligence review
- The deal team provides the matter instructions, setting out the client's position and the circumstances of the transaction.
- Qanooni applies the passive playbook that reflects the firm's standards, risk tolerances, and sector norms.
- Qanooni flags issues, deviations, and missing protections, ensuring that the represented party's interests are protected.
- During the clause-by-clause review, the lawyer interacts with Qanooni, guiding the system and refining the analysis in light of the client's objectives and deal dynamics.
- The lawyer verifies the flagged items with citations and reasoning, then finalises the document review for the diligence advice to the client.
Why this matters for deal teams in the UK and EU
Speed is valuable, but trust is critical. Miss a change-of-control clause, and deal value drops overnight. Flag too many false positives, and client confidence evaporates.
In the UK, buyers and regulators expect firms to balance efficiency with confidentiality and privilege. The Law Society Gazette has already reported that firms are moving from exploratory pilots to fully budgeted AI programmes. In EU-facing deals, GDPR and EU AI Act obligations require firms to show that outputs are explainable, lawful, and grounded in authoritative sources.
By embedding playbooks, grounding outputs in authority databases, and staying inside Word/Outlook, Qanooni balances speed with professional accuracy. For deal teams under pressure, this means closing faster without cutting corners, whether the transaction is London-to-Manchester or London-to-Paris.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AI due diligence contract review reliable?
Yes. When grounded in authoritative sources and lawyer-guided, it produces verifiable outputs. Qanooni ensures every flagged issue is tied to the text and backed by citations.
Does Qanooni replace lawyers in diligence?
No. Lawyers remain central. Qanooni accelerates clause-by-clause review, but lawyers verify outputs, advise on risks, and protect the client's interests.
How does Qanooni reduce review time?
By applying passive playbooks automatically, flagging issues consistently, and keeping outputs structured in Word. Firms report review cycles up to 2.5× faster.
What makes Qanooni different from generic AI tools?
Generic AI tools often hallucinate or summarise without context. Qanooni grounds outputs in legal authority databases and firm knowledge, reflects client circumstances and the firm's risk appetite, and never trains on client data.
Is AI due diligence contract review compliant with GDPR and the EU AI Act?
Yes. When implemented with the right safeguards, it can be. Qanooni aligns with GDPR data standards and supports EU AI Act obligations coming into force in August 2025, giving deal teams the compliance assurance they need.
Where is AI due diligence contract review most valuable?
In UK and EU cross-border M&A, where speed, GDPR compliance, and EU AI Act obligations require outputs that are explainable and verifiable.
Closing thought
M&A due diligence will always be a sprint. The question is whether lawyers spend those days manually hunting for clauses, or validating outputs already structured for them. Qanooni's approach—lawyer-first, authority-grounded, playbook-driven—means deal teams move faster without sacrificing accuracy.
👉 Want to see how Qanooni can streamline your next diligence review? Book a demo