If your work involves producing contracts with a similar structure but different details each time, such as client names, dates, fee amounts, and optional clauses, you’ve probably wished you could automate the process. Fill in the key details, and get a polished Word document back.
That’s exactly what GravityMerge AI does.
The problem with manual contract drafting
Even with precedent documents, producing a new contract typically involves opening a template in Word, hunting for every instance of the client’s name, updating dates and other details, checking which optional clauses to include, and hoping you haven’t missed anything. It works, but it’s slow, error-prone, and doesn’t scale.
PDF-based automation tools exist, but lawyers and others need editable output. Contracts need to be reviewed, negotiated, and amended, and that means Word, not PDF.
Dedicated document automation platforms (like those used by large firms) solve this, but they cost hundreds or thousands per month and can be time-consuming to implement.
How GravityMerge AI works
The approach is simple. You build a Gravity Forms form that collects the information you need: parties, dates, fee amounts, optional clause selections, etc. You create a Word document template with merge tags where the variable content goes. You link the form to the template.
When someone fills in the form, GravityMerge AI produces a fully merged Word document. The merge tags are replaced with the form data. Conditional sections appear or disappear based on the answers. Repeating rows expand for list data. Formatting is preserved.
The merge tag syntax is designed to be readable. Field substitutions use double braces: {{ Client Name }}, {{ Start Date }}, {{ Fee Amount }}. Tags are matched by the field’s label, not by a numeric ID, so your templates read like the documents they produce.
Conditional logic for contracts and other documents
Contracts almost always have optional clauses, and other documents do too. An agreement may or may not need renewal provisions, or a clause dealing with privacy breaches. A services agreement might need different IP clauses depending on the engagement type. A confidentiality clause might vary depending on whether the client is in a regulated industry.
GravityMerge AI handles this with conditional blocks:
{% if Do you need a privacy breach clause == "Yes" %}
Privacy breach clause goes here
{% endif %}These conditionals work at both the paragraph level (entire sections appear or disappear) and inline (within a sentence). They support equality, inequality, contains and not-contains (for checkbox fields), and compound conditions with and/or.
Hierarchical numbering
Legal documents live and die by their numbering. Clause 4.2(b)(iii) needs to be exactly that, not some reformatted approximation. GravityMerge AI preserves the numbering structure defined in your Word template through the merge process. What you see in your template is what you get in the output.
Getting started quickly with Architect
If you already have a precedent contract you want to automate, GravityMerge AI Architect (a separate add-on plugin purchased separately) can shortcut the setup. Upload the Word document, and AI analyses it, identifying parties, dates, amounts, optional clauses, and conditional sections. It generates a draft Gravity Forms form and a merge-tagged template. Review, adjust, and deploy.
This is particularly useful for long, complex documents where manually identifying every variable and conditional would take hours.
Real-world experience
I’ve been drafting contracts for around 20 years and working on document automation plugins for WordPress since 2018. GravityMerge AI grew out of my own legal practice: I built these tools because I needed them for my own document automation work, then turned them into products. The design decisions, editable Word output, readable merge tags, conditionals that work mid-sentence, and numbering that survives the merge, all come from lived experience over the years as a practising lawyer.
What it costs
GravityMerge AI (the core engine) starts at $97/year for a single site licence. Architect starts at $87/year. Annual subscription with updates and support included. No per-document charges.
You can find all the details on the GravityMerge AI plugin here.