General Review is the fastest way to get a structured, rule-based review of a contract when you don't have a Playbook set up for that document type. You give the AI some context about your role and anything you're particularly concerned about, and it builds a Playbook for you on the fly based on the agreement you have open. It then runs that Playbook against the contract immediately.

You don't need to have defined your positions in advance. The AI infers them from the document and the context you provide.

How to run a General Review

1. Open a contract in Word and launch the SimpleAI sidebar
2. Select Playbooks from the navigation
3. Choose General Review
4. Tell the AI a bit about your role and anything you want it to pay particular attention to
5. Hit run

The AI reads the contract, identifies the key provisions, creates a rule for each one, and reviews the contract against those rules in a single pass. You get a set of redlines and suggestions based on what it finds.

What to tell it

The context you provide shapes the rules the AI creates. The more relevant information you give it, the closer the output will be to what you actually need.

Useful things to include:

• Your role in the transaction: "I am acting for the Customer" or "I am the Supplier's legal counsel"
• The type of agreement and any relevant context: "This is a SaaS MSA with a large enterprise customer"
• Anything you are particularly concerned about: "Pay close attention to the data protection provisions and the liability cap"
• Any constraints or priorities: "We are under time pressure so flag only the highest-risk issues"

You don't need to write a detailed brief. Two or three sentences is enough to meaningfully shape the output.

What the output looks like

General Review produces the same two types of output as a standard Playbook run: proposed redlines for clauses that need changing, and suggestions for issues that need your attention. The difference is that the rules behind those outputs were created for this specific document rather than drawn from a Playbook you've built in advance.

You review the output in the same way: apply what you agree with, adjust what needs refining, dismiss what doesn't apply.

What General Review is and isn't

General Review is useful for getting a fast, structured read on a contract you haven't reviewed before, covering a document type you don't have a Playbook for, or getting a sense of the issues before deciding whether a more systematic review is needed.

It is not a substitute for a Playbook built around your actual positions. The AI is inferring what you want based on the document and the context you give it. It will get most things right but it will never perfectly reflect your preferred positions on every clause. For contract types you review regularly, a Standard or Custom Playbook will always produce more accurate and more consistent output.

Think of General Review as a smart first pass. Use it when you need something quickly or when you're reviewing a document type for the first time. Use a Playbook when consistency and precision matter.

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Next chapter → Standard Playbooks

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