Knowledge Layer vs. Legacy CLM: What Legal Ops Should…

Knowledge Layer vs. Legacy CLM: What Legal Ops Should Choose in 2025

A growing number of in-house teams report that CLM rollouts still take 9–18 months and stall on adoption. Meanwhile, business stakeholders just want faster answers, fewer blockers, and consistent positions. Here’s the shift: in 2025, smart teams are leading with a legal knowledge layer—and letting CLM follow.

This post breaks down where a knowledge layer (like Sandstone) beats legacy CLM today: implementation, adoption, integrations, cost, and scale. Use it to make a clean, defensible choice.

Quick Take: Lead With Knowledge, Not Configuration

A knowledge layer turns playbooks, positions, and approvals into living, AI-powered workflows that meet the business where it works (Slack, email, CRM). Instead of forcing everyone into a new system on day one, it orchestrates intake, triage, drafting, and decisions—then feeds your systems of record, including CLM.

The result: faster time-to-value, higher adoption, and better data. Contracts still get stored and tracked; the work gets done sooner.

Implementation: Weeks, Not Quarters

Legacy CLM often starts with a heavy lift: object models, templates, clause libraries, approvals, and custom integrations—before a single user sees value.

A knowledge layer flips this:

Stand up your first workflow (e.g., NDAs or vendor intake) in weeks.
Import your current playbook and fallback positions; AI helps normalize and tag.
Ship a lightweight intake + triage that routes work and drafts first versions.

With Sandstone, layered data and modular workflows mean you add complexity only when it pays off—strength through layers, not big-bang configuration.

Adoption: Meet Users Where They Work

CLM asks users to come to the platform. Busy sales, marketing, and procurement teams don’t.

A knowledge layer embeds into daily tools:

Intake from Slack/Teams, email, or CRM; no portal training required.
AI agents triage, apply playbooks, suggest redlines, and request missing info.
Legal stays in control; the business sees faster, clearer answers.

Adoption follows value: when requests move in hours instead of days, people use the path that works.

Integrations: Orchestrate, Don’t Overhaul

CLM integrations tend to be all-or-nothing. A knowledge layer is deliberately lightweight:

Quick connections to Slack/Teams, Gmail/Outlook, Salesforce, Jira, procurement tools.
Push/pull to your DMS or CLM-of-record for final storage and reporting.
API-first so data and decisions flow both ways.

Sandstone is designed for natural integration—blending into how you already work.

Cost: Pay for Throughput, Not Unused Modules

Large CLM footprints can balloon with professional services and shelfware. A knowledge layer focuses spend on throughput:

Start small (1–3 workflows) and expand based on measurable wins.
Reduce outside counsel spend by codifying positions and automating first passes.
Cut internal cycle time and rework; fewer escalations, cleaner handoffs.

When the business sees turnaround times drop, budget conversations get easier.

Scale: Compound Knowledge, Not Complexity

Adding use cases in CLM often means new templates, objects, and training. In a knowledge layer, every decision enriches the operating system:

Playbooks evolve from real decisions; AI proposes updates with citations.
Approvals learn from patterns (who approves what, and why) and pre-clear routine items.
Metrics get richer: time-to-first-response, auto-resolve rates, fallback usage, risk deltas.

With Sandstone, knowledge compounds instead of disappearing—your foundation gets stronger with each request.

What Workflows Fit Best to Start?

Pick high-volume, high-variance tasks where legal judgment is repeatable:

NDAs and DPAs (first drafts, redlines, fallbacks)
Sales intake with deal desk alignment (order forms, renewals, riders)
Vendor onboarding (security, privacy, and contract triage)
Marketing reviews (claims, disclosures, approvals)

In each, an AI agent can collect facts, apply playbooks, draft language, and escalate edge cases—while writing decisions back to your record systems.

Actionable Next Step: A 30–60–90 Pilot Blueprint

Start with one workflow and prove it:

Days 1–10: Define the happy path. Import playbooks, positions, and approvers. Connect Slack/Teams and email.
Days 11–30: Ship NDA or vendor intake. Measure time-to-first-response and auto-resolve rate. Keep humans-in-the-loop on exceptions.
Days 31–60: Add redline suggestions and approvals. Push executed docs to your CLM/DMS. Publish a live dashboard.
Days 61–90: Expand to a second workflow (e.g., sales order forms). Update playbooks from real decisions; capture deltas and rationale.

Success criteria: 30–50% faster cycle time, >60% request coverage without attorney touch for low-risk items, and zero material deviations from policy.

The Bottom Line

If your goal is faster contracting and cleaner risk decisions in 2025, lead with a legal knowledge layer and let CLM be the record. You’ll get value in weeks, win adoption by meeting users where they are, and build a foundation that compounds with every request.

Sandstone turns intake, triage, and playbooks into an AI-powered operating system—so legal becomes the connective tissue of the business, not a bottleneck.

Ready to see it in action? Get a demo. Prefer to dig deeper first? Read more or ask for our pilot checklist.