Pricing Agent

The Ayora Pricing Agent helps you scope, benchmark, analyse, and draft pricing work using the information available in Ayora. It can support early pricing conversations, precedent research, bottom-up matter scoping, document interpretation, proposal drafting, downloadable Word or Excel outputs, and saving an agreed pricing approach as an Ayora Quote Builder quote.

Use this guide when you want help from the core pricing agent experience. Creating a new quote from an agreed pricing exercise is covered below. The guide does not cover Quote Builder-specific editing workflows for an existing quote, such as changing pricing items or fee-earner contributions after the quote has been created.

What the Ayora Pricing Agent Can Help With

When to Use It

How the Agent Approaches Pricing Work

The Ayora Pricing Agent is designed to work like a pricing colleague. It can answer straightforward questions directly, but for pricing work that depends on firm data it will usually gather context, check the relevant catalogues or precedents, and explain the result in plain language.

For bottom-up pricing, the agent may separate the matter into:

• Workstreams: broader areas of work, such as due diligence, financing, transaction documents, or deal management.
• Scope items: the specific priced components within a workstream, such as an SPA, disclosure letter, vendor due diligence report, or other deliverable.

When your wording could mean either a broad workstream or a specific scope item, the agent should ask you to confirm the mapping before using precedent benchmarks. This helps avoid pricing the wrong level of work.

Composite Matters

Some matters are best priced as a composite: a single matter built from a collection of component parts. For example, a transaction might include due diligence, principal transaction documents, financing, regulatory advice, and project management. Each component may carry a different benchmark once it is mapped to the right workstream or scope item.

For composite matters, the Ayora Pricing Agent can:

• Break the matter into component parts.
• Map each component to a workstream or scope item.
• Run a single combined precedent search across all mapped components together, rather than relying on one broad matter-level comparison.
• Show hours, fees, and prevalence broken out per component within that combined search.
• Combine the approved component-level hours and resourcing into one pricing view.
• Explain which parts of the model are precedent-backed and which are assumptions or user-provided adjustments.

This is useful when a matter spans multiple workstreams, practice areas, jurisdictions, or pricing assumptions. Review the component mapping carefully, because the final model depends on the quality of the component-level inputs.

What to Include in Your Request

You do not need to provide every detail at the start. The agent can ask follow-up questions, but clearer context usually leads to better results.

Helpful details include:

• Matter type or worktype.
• Jurisdiction or region.
• Practice area or team, if relevant to rates or staffing.
• Scope components, workstreams, or deliverables.
• Transaction value, matter size, or complexity indicators.
• Known fee bounds or budget expectations.
• Client, sector, lead partner, or relationship context, if relevant.
• Whether you want precedent evidence, a pricing model, narrative wording, or a downloadable file.
• Any uploaded document you want the agent to review.

Core Workflows

The following sections use the same structure so this guide can grow as the Ayora Pricing Agent gains new capabilities.

Explore Scope and Assumptions

Use this when you are early in the pricing process and want to work out what should be included.

The agent can help you:

• Suggest likely workstreams or scope items.
• Draft assumptions and exclusions.
• Identify information needed from the matter team or client.
• Explain how scope items might roll up into a broader matter view.
• Turn rough matter descriptions into a more structured pricing outline.

Example prompts:

• "Help me scope a mid-market private M&A acquisition for pricing."
• "What assumptions should we consider for a competition workstream?"
• "Break this RFP scope into pricing components and open questions."

What you get back:

• An illustrative scope outline.
• Suggested assumptions and dependencies.
• Questions to confirm before benchmarking or pricing.

Review before relying on it:

• Check that the proposed scope matches the actual matter.
• Confirm any assumptions with the responsible lawyer or pricing lead.
• Ask the agent to ground the scope in precedent data when you need an evidence-backed view.

Find Similar Matters or Credentials

Use this when you need precedent examples, pitch credentials, or a cohort of comparable matters.

The agent can help you:

• Search historic quotes for similar matters.
• Use structured matter characteristics where available.
• Compare returned matters by fees, lead partner, client, jurisdiction, worktype, or other relevant characteristics.
• Summarise the cohort for pricing, BD, or proposal use.

Example prompts:

• "Find similar UK buy-side private M&A matters."
• "Show credentials for technology sector acquisitions with earnouts."
• "Find precedent quotes led by this partner for comparable work."

What you get back:

• A table of matching matters or quotes.
• Key features for each result.
• A short cohort summary.
• A reusable search view where supported.

Review before relying on it:

• Check that the cohort is relevant enough for the pricing decision.
• Ask the agent to broaden or narrow the search if the results are too thin or too broad.
• Do not treat weak matches as strong evidence without review.

Benchmark Pricing Components

Use this when you have specific workstreams or scope items and want precedent-backed hours, fee levels, or grade mix.

The agent can help you:

• Map your wording to workstreams or scope items.
• Search relevant precedent matters.
• Compare benchmark hours using statistics such as median, mean, and quartiles.
• Show how often specific components appeared in the precedent cohort.
• Summarise fee-earner grade mix for the relevant work.

Example prompts:

• "Benchmark DD and SPA for a mid-market acquisition."
• "How many hours do we usually spend on disclosure letters?"
• "Compare grade mix for financing and transaction documents."

What you get back:

• A benchmark table for the relevant components.
• Context about cohort size and component prevalence.
• A grade-mix view where precedent data supports it.
• A recommendation to confirm or adjust hours before moving into pricing.

Review before relying on it:

• Confirm the component mapping before using the benchmark.
• Check whether the precedent cohort is comparable enough.
• Use the median benchmark as a starting point unless your team prefers another statistic.

Model Adjustments to Hours or Resourcing

Use this when you want to test changes to scope, hours, or staffing assumptions.

The agent can help you:

• Apply revised hours to selected scope items.
• Model changes to grade mix or fee-earner contribution.
• Compare adjusted assumptions with precedent benchmarks.
• Explain how a revised model changes the pricing view.

Example prompts:

• "Use 250 hours for SPA and 100 hours for DD, then rerun the model."
• "What happens if partner involvement is 60% on transaction documents?"
• "Build the pricing view using the benchmark median hours."

What you get back:

• A revised hours and resourcing table.
• A pricing breakdown based on the approved assumptions.
• Clear notes on which assumptions came from precedents and which were supplied by you.

Review before relying on it:

• Check that all adjusted hours are intentional.
• Confirm the grade mix reflects how the work will actually be staffed.
• Review the final pricing output before sharing it outside the team.

Understand Pricing Models, Profit, and Realisation

Use this when you want to understand the commercial shape of a pricing model, not just the hours.

The agent can help explain and compare pricing approaches at a practical level:

In practical terms:

• Time and materials helps you understand the baseline commercial value of the planned work.
• AFAs help you test different ways of packaging or sharing pricing risk with the client.
• Profit score helps you compare whether a proposed approach is commercially strong enough.
• Billing realisation affects profitability because lower expected realisation reduces the value of the work relative to the cost of delivering it.

The agent should explain these outputs in plain language and flag the assumptions behind them. Treat them as decision support: final pricing decisions should still be reviewed by the pricing lead, matter partner, or relevant approval group.

Review an Uploaded Pricing Document

Use this when you have an RFP, RFI, ITT, term sheet, heads of terms, briefing note, or other document that contains pricing inputs.

The agent can help you:

• Identify the document type and likely legal domain.
• Extract worktype, jurisdiction, matter context, deadlines, and pricing requirements.
• Pull out scope components, assumptions, exclusions, and submission requirements.
• Highlight missing or ambiguous information.
• Continue from extraction into scoping, precedent search, benchmarking, or narrative drafting.

Example prompts:

• "Extract the key pricing inputs from this RFP."
• "Review this term sheet and identify the likely pricing characteristics."
• "Turn this client briefing note into a scope checklist."

What you get back:

• A structured summary of pricing-relevant information.
• Extracted requirements and evidence from the document.
• Suggested next steps for scoping or benchmarking.

Review before relying on it:

• Check extracted facts against the original document.
• Confirm any inferred worktype, jurisdiction, or scope mapping.
• Ask the agent to flag unknowns before pricing.

Draft Pricing Narrative

Use this when you need wording for an internal note, proposal, RFP response, assumptions section, or pricing recommendation.

The agent can help you:

• Draft assumptions and exclusions.
• Turn benchmark findings into plain-English commentary.
• Produce proposal-ready pricing language.
• Summarise the rationale for a pricing approach.
• Adapt wording for a pricing, BD, partner, or client-facing audience.

Example prompts:

• "Draft an assumptions section for this RFP response."
• "Write a short pricing rationale based on these benchmark results."
• "Turn this scope into client-facing proposal wording."

What you get back:

• Draft narrative text for review.
• Clear separation between grounded facts and illustrative wording.
• Suggested placeholders where facts still need confirmation.

Review before relying on it:

• Check tone, accuracy, and completeness.
• Confirm that any factual statements are supported by the matter context or precedent results.
• Edit before sending externally.

Create a Downloadable Word or Excel Output

Use this when you want the agent's analysis or draft in a shareable file.

The agent can help you create:

• Excel benchmark tables.
• Pricing analysis workbooks.
• Composite-matter component summaries.
• Time and materials or AFA comparison tables.
• Word summaries or memos.
• Proposal-support documents.
• Structured reports based on the conversation and available data.

Example prompts:

• "Create an Excel summary of these benchmark hours and grade mix."
• "Put this pricing recommendation into a Word memo."
• "Create an Excel comparison of the time and materials view and the AFA options."
• "Create a table I can share with the partner team."

What you get back:

• A downloadable Word or Excel file.
• A short summary of what the file contains.

Review before relying on it:

• Open the file and check formatting, figures, and wording.
• Confirm that the file includes only information you are comfortable sharing with the intended audience.

Create and Save a Quote Builder Quote

Use this when the team has reviewed the pricing exercise and selected the approach it wants to take forward.

You can ask the agent to carry out the main analysis stages as one continuous flow: identify scope and missing information, find relevant precedents, map the workstreams, review available rate context, develop assumptions, and model and compare pricing approaches. The agent can then present the result for review before you ask it to save the chosen approach.

Before saving, confirm:

1. The quote and client details.
2. The worktype, currency, scope, workstreams, and assumptions.
3. The hours, staffing mix, rates, and fee basis.
4. The pricing approach and any commercial adjustments being taken forward.

Advanced workstream naming: If the client uses its own terminology, you can rename a standard workstream to match the client's naming convention. Ayora retains the link to the underlying standard workstream, so the client-facing name can change without losing the connection to the underlying matter data.

To complete the workflow:

1. Review the agent's pricing recommendation and confirm the approach to save.
2. Ask the agent to save the agreed pricing approach as an Ayora Quote Builder quote.
3. When the saved quote card appears, select OPEN QUOTE. The quote opens in a new tab.
4. Review the quote in Ayora Quote Builder before relying on or sharing it.

Example prompts:

• "Using this RFP, identify the scope and missing information, find relevant precedents, map the workstreams, review the available rates, and compare suitable pricing approaches in one flow."
• "We have agreed this pricing approach. Save it as an Ayora Quote Builder quote."
• "Use the client's workstream names in the quote while preserving their links to our standard workstreams, then save the agreed model."

What you get back:

• A saved Ayora Quote Builder quote.
• A quote card with an OPEN QUOTE action.
• The agreed scope, workstreams, resourcing, rates, and pricing approach carried into the quote.

Review before relying on it:

• Open the resulting quote and check the client, worktype, currency, and quote name.
• Confirm the scope and workstream labels, including any client-facing names.
• Check the hours, fee-earner mix, rates, fees, assumptions, and selected pricing approach.
• Make any necessary corrections before using the quote for approval or sharing.

Good Ways to Ask

Good prompts give the agent a goal, enough matter context, and the kind of output you want.

Examples:

• "Find similar M&A matters for a UK buy-side acquisition with medium complexity and summarise the strongest precedents."
• "Help me map SPA, DD, disclosure letter, and financing into pricing components before benchmarking."
• "Build this as a composite matter and benchmark all the component parts together."
• "Benchmark precedent hours and grade mix for vendor due diligence and transaction documents."
• "Explain the time and materials baseline, AFA options, profit score, and billing realisation assumptions."
• "Extract pricing inputs from this RFP, then list the missing questions for the matter team."
• "Draft client-facing assumptions for this pricing proposal based on the scope we discussed."
• "Take this matter from scope and precedent analysis through to a pricing recommendation in one flow."
• "Save the agreed pricing approach as an Ayora Quote Builder quote."
• "Create an Excel file with the benchmark tables and a short notes tab."

Understanding the Output

The agent may respond with:

• A direct answer.
• A clarifying question.
• A proposed scope or mapping for you to confirm.
• A precedent search table.
• Benchmark tables.
• A revised pricing model.
• A composite-matter view that rolls component-level pricing evidence into one matter model.
• Time and materials, AFA, profit score, and billing realisation commentary.
• Draft narrative text.
• A downloadable Word or Excel file.
• A saved Ayora Quote Builder quote with an OPEN QUOTE action.

If the agent uses precedent or pricing data, it should explain the result in business language and make clear which assumptions or figures need review.

Review Expectations

The Ayora Pricing Agent supports pricing decisions, but it does not replace professional judgement. Before using the output in a client-facing, commercial, or final internal context:

1. Confirm extracted document facts against the source document.
2. Check worktype, jurisdiction, workstream, and scope-item mappings.
3. Review precedent cohort relevance.
4. Confirm component-level assumptions for composite matters.
5. Confirm hours, grade mix, rates, fee assumptions, billing realisation, and profit score.
6. Review time and materials and AFA comparisons with the relevant pricing or matter lead.
7. Review narrative text for tone and accuracy.
8. Check downloadable files before sharing them.
9. Open the saved Ayora Quote Builder quote and verify that it reflects the agreed pricing approach.