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Beginner 30 min 4 Steps

Draft Any Document with AI — Contracts to SOPs

Document drafting is one of the highest-leverage uses of AI in professional work. Whether you're writing an employment contract, a vendor agreement, a standard operating procedure, a business proposal...

What You'll Build

4
Steps
30m
Time
3
Tools
4
Prompts
Difficulty Beginner
Best for
documentscontractssopwriting

Step-by-Step Guide

Follow this 4-step workflow to complete in about 30 min.

Draft aWrite StandardWrite BusinessPolish and
1

Draft a Contract or Legal Document

AI can produce surprisingly complete first drafts of common business contracts — NDAs, service agreements, employment letters, vendor contracts. The output won't replace a lawyer for complex or high-stakes agreements, but it dramatically reduces the cost and time to get to a starting point that a lawyer can then review and finalize.

Prompt Template
Draft a [contract/agreement type] for the following situation. I need a complete, usable draft that I can then review and customize. **Document type:** [e.g., 'Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)' / 'Freelance Service Agreement' / 'Employment Offer Letter' / 'Vendor Agreement' / 'Software License Agreement'] **Parties:** - Party 1 (me/my company): [Your name/company name, location, type of entity — e.g., 'Acme Corp, a Delaware corporation'] - Party 2 (the other party): [Their name/company, or use placeholder if unknown] **Key terms:** - [Term 1: e.g., 'Project scope: Design and develop a mobile app MVP within 90 days'] - [Term 2: e.g., 'Payment: $15,000 total, $5,000 upfront, $5,000 at 50% milestone, $5,000 on delivery'] - [Term 3: e.g., 'IP ownership: All work product assigned to client on final payment'] - [Term 4: e.g., 'Confidentiality: Both parties, 2-year term'] - [Term 5: e.g., 'Dispute resolution: Arbitration in New York'] **Jurisdiction:** [State/country governing law — e.g., 'State of California' / 'England and Wales' / 'Singapore'] **Specific clauses I want included:** - [e.g., 'Limitation of liability capped at contract value'] - [e.g., 'Force majeure clause'] - [e.g., 'Non-solicitation of employees for 12 months'] **Anything unusual about this situation:** [Describe anything that makes this agreement non-standard] Draft a complete agreement including: 1. All standard sections for this type of agreement 2. Clear numbering and section headers 3. Blanks [IN BRACKETS] for any terms I need to fill in 4. Plain-English explanations in comments for any clause that's complex or where I have options After the draft, list: - 3-5 things I should review carefully before signing - Any clauses where I should consider getting a lawyer's input - Alternative versions of the most important clauses (e.g., more or less favorable payment terms)
Tip: Always have a lawyer review contracts above a certain value threshold — $10,000 is a reasonable minimum for many businesses. AI drafts are excellent starting points that reduce lawyer time (and cost) significantly, but they can miss jurisdiction-specific requirements, unenforceable clauses, and edge cases that a lawyer would catch. Use AI to get to 80%, use a lawyer to get to production-ready.
2

Write Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

SOPs are essential for scaling any operation — they capture how things are done, reduce training time, ensure consistency, and survive employee turnover. They're also notoriously hard to write because they require thinking through every step in detail. AI is excellent at this because it's good at systematic decomposition and doesn't skip steps.

Prompt Template
Write a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the following process. **Process name:** [e.g., 'New Customer Onboarding' / 'Monthly Payroll Processing' / 'Handling Customer Complaints' / 'Shipping an Order'] **Who this SOP is for:** [e.g., 'Customer success team members' / 'Finance team' / 'Any employee handling this task'] **What this process accomplishes:** [1-2 sentences on the goal and why it matters] **Where it starts and ends:** - Starts when: [What triggers this process? e.g., 'When a new customer signs the contract'] - Ends when: [What's the completion condition? e.g., 'When the customer logs in for the first time and confirms their account is set up correctly'] **Tools and systems involved:** - [Tool 1: e.g., HubSpot CRM] - [Tool 2: e.g., Stripe for billing] - [Tool 3: e.g., Slack for internal communication] **Key steps (rough outline — I may have missed some):** 1. [Step 1] 2. [Step 2] 3. [Step 3] [Continue as known] **Common mistakes or failure points:** - [Thing that often goes wrong 1] - [Thing that often goes wrong 2] Write a complete SOP that includes: 1. **Header**: Process name, version number (1.0), effective date, owner (role), last reviewed date 2. **Purpose**: Why this process exists and what it achieves 3. **Scope**: Who does this apply to; when is it used; what's excluded 4. **Prerequisites**: What must be true before starting (access, information, materials needed) 5. **Step-by-step instructions**: Every step numbered, with: - What to do - How to do it (specific enough that someone new can follow it) - What system or tool to use - What the expected result is - Decision points: 'If X, then do Y; if Z, then do W' 6. **Quality checks**: At what points should the person doing this task verify they're on track? 7. **What to do if something goes wrong**: How to handle the most common failure scenarios 8. **Related processes**: Other SOPs that connect to this one 9. **Version history**: Placeholder table for tracking changes over time
Tip: The best way to write an SOP is to have someone who doesn't currently do the task follow your draft and tell you where they get confused or stuck. Every point of confusion is a gap in the SOP. AI is good at filling in generic process steps, but you need someone actually following it to catch the company-specific steps that AI can't know — 'log into the CRM using the shared team credentials in 1Password' is a step AI will never include on its own.
3

Write Business Proposals and Reports

Proposals and reports are high-stakes documents where first impressions matter. A well-structured proposal with clear logic and professional writing wins business. AI can help you build the structure, draft sections, and polish the language — faster than writing from scratch and more consistently than winging it each time.

Prompt Template
Help me draft a professional [proposal / report / memo] for the following situation. **Document type:** [Business proposal / Executive summary / Project report / Feasibility study / Business case / Policy memo] **Purpose:** [What this document needs to accomplish — e.g., 'Win a contract to redesign the city's transit app' / 'Convince leadership to approve a $200K budget increase' / 'Present Q1 performance results to the board'] **Audience:** [Who will read this — their role, what they care about, how much context they have] **Key message:** [If they only remember one thing from this document, what should it be?] **Content I want to include:** - [Main point 1 with supporting data] - [Main point 2 with supporting data] - [Main point 3 with supporting data] - [Recommendation or ask] **Context:** - Our organization: [Brief description] - The situation or opportunity: [What led to this document being needed] - Relevant constraints: [Budget, timeline, political considerations] - Key data points: [Any numbers, metrics, or facts I want to highlight] **Length target:** [e.g., '2-page executive summary' / '10-page proposal' / '1-page memo'] Draft this document with: 1. An opening that immediately conveys the key message and stakes 2. Logical structure that leads the reader to my recommended conclusion 3. Clear section headers 4. Data and evidence presented compactly — tables or bullets for complex information 5. A clear call to action at the end — what do I want the reader to do? After the draft: - Flag any sections where I should add specific data or customize for my situation - Identify the weakest section — where is the logic least convincing? - Suggest any sections I should add that would strengthen the document
Tip: The biggest mistake in business proposals is burying the key message. Most business readers decide whether to engage with a document in the first 30 seconds. Lead with your recommendation and the strongest supporting evidence, not with background context. Background is for section 2 or an appendix. The first paragraph should answer: what are you proposing, why does it matter, and what do you want the reader to do?
4

Polish and Review Documents with AI

After drafting, use AI for a systematic quality review — not just proofreading, but checking logical consistency, tone calibration, completeness, and clarity. This is faster and more thorough than rereading the document yourself, where you tend to see what you intended rather than what's actually there.

Prompt Template
Review and improve this document. **Document type:** [What type of document is this?] **Intended audience:** [Who will read this?] **Purpose:** [What should this document accomplish?] **Tone target:** [Formal / Professional / Persuasive / Neutral / Technical] **The document:** --- [Paste your full document here] --- Review this document for: **1. Clarity and readability** - Any sentences that are ambiguous or could be misread - Jargon that my audience might not know - Sentences over 25 words that should be split - Passive voice where active voice would be clearer - Any paragraphs where the main point is buried **2. Logic and structure** - Does the document flow in a logical order? - Are there any jumps in logic where a step is missing? - Is the conclusion or recommendation clearly supported by what came before? - Any circular arguments or claims without evidence? **3. Completeness** - Are there obvious questions my audience will ask that aren't answered? - Is there anything important missing that should be included? - Are all claims backed by evidence or clearly labeled as assumptions? **4. Tone consistency** - Is the tone consistent throughout, or does it shift unexpectedly? - Does the tone match my target? Flag any sections that feel off. **5. Specific improvements** For the 5 most impactful changes, show me: - The original text - The improved version - Why the change makes it better **6. Overall assessment** - What is the strongest section? - What is the weakest section? - What is the one change that would most improve this document's effectiveness?
Tip: For legal or compliance documents, use AI for language polish and structural review, then use a domain expert or lawyer for substance review. For everything else, use Grammarly as a first-pass mechanical check (grammar, punctuation, spelling), then AI for the higher-order review (clarity, logic, completeness). In that order — fix the mechanical errors first so AI's analysis focuses on substance, not mechanics.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use AI-generated contracts without a lawyer?
For low-stakes, standard agreements (a basic NDA, a simple freelance agreement under $5,000), an AI-generated draft is often adequate — especially if you're using it as a starting point based on a template type that's well-established and you're in a common jurisdiction. For anything involving significant money, IP transfer, employment, regulatory compliance, or unusual circumstances, get a lawyer to review. The math usually works in your favor: a lawyer reviewing an AI draft costs 30-50% less than a lawyer drafting from scratch, and the AI draft is likely more complete and consistent than what you'd write yourself. Use AI to draft, use lawyers to validate.
How do I make AI-drafted documents sound like they came from my organization?
Three things create institutional voice: Vocabulary (the specific terms your organization uses), values emphasis (what your company consistently foregrounds — customer service, innovation, compliance, speed), and structural preferences (do you write short memos or detailed reports, use bullet points or prose, sign off formally or casually). Before drafting, give AI examples of 2-3 documents your organization has produced and ask it to match the style. After drafting, do one pass replacing generic language with your organization's actual terminology. The most important customization: replace all generic company/product references with your actual names — nothing screams 'AI draft' like a contract that says 'the Company' where your company's actual name should appear.
What's the best approach for SOPs — writing them from scratch with AI or transcribing existing processes?
For processes that are already working well: record yourself (or someone) doing the process once, then transcribe that recording with an AI transcription tool, then use AI to convert the transcript into a formal SOP format. This captures the actual process, including the non-obvious steps that expert practitioners do automatically but never think to include in written instructions. For new processes: use AI to draft based on your description, then have someone follow it blind (without already knowing how to do the task) to find the gaps. The hybrid approach — AI drafts the structure, domain expert fills in the company-specific details — is faster than either pure approach.

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