Top 5 takeaways from new contracts survey: Most people don’t read before they sign

Contracts and agreements are a necessary part of life, whether you're signing up for a gym membership, starting a new job or closing a business deal. In fact, a new survey found that 73 percent of consumers, 68 percent of knowledge workers and 91 percent of SMB owners in the U.S. work with contracts at least monthly.

But let’s face it: how often do you actually read and understand every word before signing a contract or clicking on an “agree” button? If the answer is “not often,” you’re not alone.

The survey, commissioned by Adobe Acrobat, explored how people engage with contracts at work and home. We asked questions ranging from, “Have you ever signed a contract without knowing what’s in it?” to “How does reading a contract make you feel?” to “Would having an AI assistant help you understand, compare and contrast contracts increase your confidence in understanding them?”

We found a number of common themes across all audiences. Following are the top five takeaways:

1. Contracts are an everyday part of work and personal life
2. Most of us sign contracts without knowing what’s in them
3. The top reasons we don’t read contracts is that they’re too long and complicated
4. Uncertainty around contracts stresses us out and can impact our jobs
5. AI can make us more confident that we understand that information with contracts

While the overall findings were consistent across the groups we surveyed, there are some interesting nuances in both the questions we asked and how people responded. The following is a breakout of the data by audience:

Consumers

Dealing with contracts stirs up negative emotions. When we asked consumers how simply reading contracts makes them feel, nearly 70 percent chose a negative emoji. For example, 44 percent chose 😤 and nearly a quarter (24 percent) chose 🤢.

A strong majority of consumers — 69 percent — admitted signing a contract without knowing all the details. When we asked them how doing so made them feel, 63 percent reported being “uncomfortable” or even “terrified” and two-thirds said that they discovered unexpected terms after signing — with 15 percent describing their discoveries as “horrifying.”

From social media and music playlists to chatbots, consumers are interacting with AI more frequently than ever. So, it’s not surprising that 72 percent believe that having AI help with things like summarizing and comparing contracts could give them more confidence in their ability to better understand the variety of agreements they regularly encounter. For example, when reviewing an apartment lease, AI tools can highlight key details like deposit rules and pet policies. Gym contracts can become clearer with explanations of cancellation policies. For phone contracts, AI can quickly spot pesky fees. Even when reviewing a job offer, AI can break down complex terms, such as salary, benefits, and non-compete clauses, helping provide consumers with more confidence.

Small business owners

Small business owners encounter contracts more often than any other group surveyed, with 91 percent working with contracts at least monthly, 45 percent working with them weekly and nearly one-fifth (19 percent) working with them every day. Although contracts are a key part of their work, 62 percent of small business owners admitted to signing contracts without knowing the details, triggering negative emotions ranging from discomfort to fear in 69 percent of respondents. A majority of SMBs — 60 percent — admitted that they had discovered surprising terms after signing a contract they hadn’t fully read, with 13 percent finding the revelations “horrifying.” In addition, 64 percent of small business leaders said they had avoided signing a contract because they weren’t confident they understood its terms.

While some small business owners are wary about adopting new technologies, they’re also keen to try new ways to help their companies operate more efficiently and grow. When it comes to contracts a strong majority (71 percent) of small business owners believe AI tools can help them better understand the details and differences — and they’re right. For example, AI can make it simpler to compare between vendor agreements to determine which one offers the best terms or prepare to review a new partnership agreement with their attorney.

Knowledge workers and tech leaders

In large companies, it’s common for employees and leaders to review and execute contracts and agreements to help keep the business running. However, most knowledge workers (61 percent) and even more of their leaders (63 percent) admit that they’ve signed contracts on-the-job without fully understanding the details. Nearly one-third (32 percent) of workers reported facing negative workplace consequences, including disciplinary action, loss of trust and even job termination, due to signing contracts they didn’t fully understand. In addition, 63 percent of technology leaders say difficulty interpreting contracts and confusing terms has caused business delays.

Perhaps because they’re more likely to know how AI works and where it can be most helpful, 96 percent of technology leaders say that AI would make them more confident in employees’ ability to understand and execute contracts responsibly. For example, marketers can easily identify differences or changes between scopes of work and quickly find the details of brand and advertising partnerships , and finance teams can accelerate reviews of sales contracts and vendor agreements.

Introducing new contract intelligence in Acrobat AI Assistant

Adobe recently introduced contract intelligence in Acrobat AI Assistant to help make navigating and understanding the information in contracts and agreements easier and faster. Capabilities include:

• Contract intelligence: Acrobat AI Assistant automatically recognizes when a document is a contract — including scanned documents — and tailors the experience, generating a contract overview, surfacing key terms in a single click, quickly summarizing information and recommending questions specific to customers’ documents.
• Straightforward explanations — verified: Acrobat AI Assistant generates summaries and responses with clear language and clickable citations, making it fast and easy to navigate to the source and verify responses.
• Compare and contrast: Quickly see differences between versions, check for consistency and catch discrepancies across up to 10 contracts — including scanned documents.

Adobe Acrobat also includes secure sharing and signing, making it simple for customers to easily review contracts with stakeholders and request e-signatures all in one app.

For more information, visit here.

The road ahead: Embracing AI for better understanding

The potential for AI to transform how people understand the information in the contracts they work with contract understanding is exciting. With AI, individuals and businesses can approach contracts with greater transparency, turning what was once a source of stress into an opportunity for inquiry, clarity and confidence.

Survey methodology

Adobe partnered with Advanis , a research firm that provides market, social, and consumer research services. We surveyed 1020 U.S. consumers, 274 small business owners, 286 knowledge workers and 202 technology leaders. The data was collected between January 6 and January 12, 2025. The survey sample is representative of U.S. demographics.