Add a “Reconnect and Draft” button

Over the past few days, I discovered something unexpected while working with AI on drafting a complex enterprise technology contract.

The challenge wasn’t the AI’s ability to write.

It was its ability to stay connected to everything that had already been decided.

When drafting a sophisticated contract, we don’t simply produce clauses. We spend hours designing the architecture before writing the first page.

We decide:

• the contract structure;
• the relationship between the Master Agreement and its annexures;
• the drafting philosophy;
• the commercial position;
• the allocation of risk;
• the negotiation strategy;
• the writing cadence;
• the clause sequencing; and
• the overall “voice” of the document.

Those decisions become the constitution of the contract.

Yet, during a long drafting session, I noticed a recurring pattern.

Each time I asked the AI to “draft next”, it produced good legal drafting. Sometimes it even produced objectively stronger clauses.

But occasionally it would drift.

It would redesign a clause that had already been carefully engineered.

It would change the drafting rhythm.

It would introduce a different sentence structure.

It would move material into a new Part because it seemed more logical in isolation.

Individually, none of those changes were wrong.

Collectively, they slowly transformed the document into something that no longer reflected the architecture we had spent hours creating.

That was the moment I realised something important.

The problem wasn’t intelligence.

The problem was reconnection.

AI Doesn’t Need More Creativity

For long-form professional drafting, AI rarely needs to be more creative.

It needs to be more disciplined.

Every new section should begin with one question:

Before I write, what decisions have already been made that I must respect?

That question sounds simple.

But it changes everything.

From “Draft Next” to “Reconnect and Draft”

We introduced a new instruction:

Reconnect and draft.

Those three words completely changed the workflow.

Before producing another clause, the AI would first reconnect to:

• the constitutional draft that had already been created;
• the agreed architecture;
• the complete risk analysis;
• the drafting methodology;
• the commercial strategy;
• the user’s standing instructions;
• the negotiation philosophy; and
• the existing drafting voice.

Only then would it continue drafting.

The objective wasn’t to slow the AI down.

It was to prevent drafting drift.

Drafting Drift Is Real

Anyone who has written a lengthy agreement knows that consistency is one of the hardest parts of drafting.

The first twenty pages may be written in one style.

The next twenty pages gradually become something else.

Different terminology appears.

Different sentence rhythm emerges.

The structure slowly changes.

Human lawyers experience this.

AI experiences it too.

The difference is that AI can reconnect deliberately before every drafting step.

Architecture Is Intellectual Property

One of the biggest lessons from this project is that the architecture of a contract is often more valuable than any individual clause.

A well-designed enterprise agreement reflects hours of thinking about:

• legal risk;
• commercial objectives;
• operational governance;
• future scalability;
• negotiation dynamics; and
• customer experience.

Once that architecture exists, the goal should not be to rewrite it every time.

The goal should be to preserve it.

Improvements should be deliberate, evidence-based and proportionate.

Not every clause needs to be “better”.

Sometimes the best drafting decision is to leave an already well-crafted clause exactly as it is.

The Principle of Minimum Effective Amendment

This led to another principle that I now believe should become standard practice.

Before changing any clause, ask:

Is there a demonstrable legal, commercial or operational reason to change it?

If the answer is no, preserve the original.

AI should not optimise for novelty.

It should optimise for consistency.

A Better Way to Work with AI

Going forward, I think professional AI drafting should adopt a simple discipline.

Every significant drafting instruction should begin with a silent internal step:

Reconnect.

Reconnect to:

• the agreed architecture;
• the drafting philosophy;
• the risk analysis;
• the commercial strategy;
• the negotiation objectives;
• the user’s standing instructions; and
• the existing document.

Only then should the AI draft.

Final Thought

We often talk about teaching AI to think.

Perhaps, for professional work, we should spend more time teaching it to remember what already matters.

Because the best draft isn’t always the one with the newest ideas.

It’s the one that remains faithful to the best decisions that have already been made.

That is why, from now on, my preferred instruction is no longer simply:

“Draft next.”

It is:

“Reconnect and draft.”